The Shadows of Middle-Earth
by De4thknight
Summary: (Part 2 of Rise of the Banshee Queen) The War of the Ring is happening, the Banshee Queen and Sauron are ready to bring their war across Middle-Earth to see which one rules them all. The One Ring is finally found and now its up to the people of Middle-Earth to prepare themselves by standing against the both of them.
1. Chapter 1

(Now you probably already know that I do not own Warcraft and Middle-Earth, all credits goes to the ones who created amazing fantasy worlds. There will also be a few parts and scenes from the movies just so you know where the story is now. This story is much bigger so expect to see a sort of 'Game of Thrones' sort of thing and maybe a few Easter Eggs so enjoy)

[Third Age – 3018]

Long ago, the lands of Mordor returns to a dark and desolate place for the darkness to grow, an army to rise and the Dark Lord to watch over as a sign of fear over his enemies. The Dark Lord Sauron came back into Mordor, claiming these lands and destroying the fortresses that once belong to Gondor. Sauron plan to take Mordor and create his army, here he could create a massive army so big that he could launch an all-out assault across Middle-Earth. Sauron was close of claiming Mordor, getting all of his followers on his side but in the end, he failed to achieve his goals.

A Shadow War broke out between Sauron and the Banshee Queen Sylvanas, the elven ranger who died, brought back to life by Sauron so she could serve him but she rebelled thanks to the New Ring. The New Ring of power came to her after Celebrimbor failed to defeat Sauron, there she did what Celebrimbor could not do and that is to take all of Mordor under her command. Sylvanas now claims Mordor and Sauron is nothing but a flaming eye, stuck at the top of Barad-Dur, fighting against Celebrimbor in that flaming state until one of them submits. Thanks to what Sylvanas has done, she damaged him greatly, taking everything from him, making him suffer so he would understand what she feels against him.

Sauron's grip into the east was fading, all he could do is watch, watching as the lands around Mordor falls to the power of the Forsaken and to Sylvanas. Thanks to what Sylvanas has done, Sauron's followers fled Mordor, the Nazgul fled to Dol-Guldur, claiming this fortress as their base of operations, turning the lands of Mirkwood into a darker state. The rest of his followers who did not participate in the Shadow Wars went further west, his new lieutenant named Agandaur set up base of operations in Carn-Dum, the lost kingdom of Angmar. He takes over what is left of Angmar, claiming Mount Gundabad and massing an army of orcs where he could launch an attack against the lost kingdom of Arnor and against the dwarves of Erebor.

Because of the new change of command in Mordor, the Forsaken has reach their full power on this day, creating an army of two hundred thousand soldiers of Uruks, orcs, trolls, beasts, drakes and other sort of creatures Sylvanas could get her hands on. She masses her army against the other followers of Sauron, targeting the lands of Rhun, starting a serious war against them as they still serve Sauron. The rest of the lands like Harad remain quiet after losing a strong leader in Mordor, losing Edwin VanCleef but now all of his titles now belongs to his daughter Vanessa VanCleef.

The war in the east was only a tip of the spear for the Forsaken, Sylvanas had other plans, using her resources to find and retrieve the One Ring, the master ring, if destroyed then Sauron's reign in Middle-Earth will end. Sylvanas tried to find this ring but instead she found someone else, someone who wore the ring before it was lost again to thirty more years. Gollum was the one that Sylvanas needs to find, hidden within Mordor, she sent her warriors to find him and bring him to Barad-Dur, there she uses the power of her ring to dominate Gollum, to gather information on who has the ring. Gollum did not last time, he was not strong against her but he did not needed to be tortured to give Sylvanas what she wants. Gollum finally responds and gave her two words "Shire. Baggins"

In Minas Morgul, the dark fortress that now covers in blue colour instead of green, a black rider, carrying one of the nine rings that once belong to Talion. This new Nazgul, a servant to the Banshee Queen sets out alone, leaving Minas Morgul to the hands of an Overlord. He rides out over the bridge, riding on a black horse and making his way straight to the west for the hunt for the One Ring.

With Minas Morgul under the command of orcs and Uruks, not expecting to deal with any situations on their side but that would change. Something was about to happen to Minas Morgul, a surprise attack that will catch them all off guard, an army from the west has come to make their mark by laying siege to the fortress of Minas Morgul.

An army of the west, the soldiers of Gondor, under the command of general Varian Wrynn, a great general to Gondor, a man who rose up the ranks and his reputation in Gondor is high, some believe he could be the king. He and his father before him have been staying as commanding generals for Gondor, making sure it does not fall to darkness when they heard that the enemy has returned. They are not kings but they do not wish to claim that title, all they care about is the safety of Gondor by riding out to meet their enemies. General Varian now takes this legacy, bringing an army of Gondorian troops of several thousand men to laid siege to Minas Morgul. They unleash flaming fireballs from trebuchets, firing them over the walls while Varian and his armies charge straight through towards the large black gate. The orcs are in chaos for the moment but the Overlord got his army ready, getting archers into position and start raining arrows down at them as they go charging at the gate with a large shielded battering ram, covered in metal plating to protect most of the troops. Once the battering ram is at the front, they begin hitting the gate, hitting it a few times until finally the gate is blast right open.

On the other side, thousands of Forsaken warriors rush to the gate, the captains and trolls took the lead. They all stood their ground and wait for the gate to break through, once the gate breaches, Varian and his army rushes straight into Minas Morgul, clashing against the enemy on the other side, pushing them back and clashing in a serious fight. Varian kept moving through, holding this great sword, striking down one Orc after another, even clashing against a captain that is an Olog-Hai from the Mystic Tribe. He clashes against the Olog-Hai, eventually gaining the upper hand when he strikes its arm off and sent his sword through the chest, when he pulls it out, the Olog-Hai falls back.

Varian looks back at his men "Onward soldiers of Gondor, onward to victory!"

The Gondorian troops rally to Varian, pushing back the Forsaken and getting all of the troops that are still outside to move in, spreading out and pushing the enemy back. Inside the mix of the Gondorian army was Boromir, wearing his Gondorian armour but not wearing a helmet, carrying his shield and sword, rushing into the city, reaching to Varian and helps push the enemy back.

Inside the upper level, the Overlord himself came down to meet with the armies of Gondor, walking through the iron portcullis that opens for him and two of his captains, both Uruks from the Dark Tribe. He looks out towards Varian, seeing him clashing against many warriors, killing the lot of them until he stops and looks towards the Overlord.

The Overlord was known as Zog the Terror, a pale white Uruk with dark plated armour, probably from the Dark Tribe like the others. His mouth is covered in blood, same goes to his bloodied axes he carries with him. He draws one of his axes and taking out a horn and blows it, calling for more of his bodyguards to come out and come charging past him. He places the horn away and takes out the other axe, aiming that axe towards Varian and calls him out.

"Hey maggot! You made a mistake coming here, the Banshee Queen did not want us to harm the humans of the west… But since you are here, that means nothing is stopping us from butchering the lot of you right here and right now!"

"Yeah!" One of the Uruk captains said, holding a flaming sword "The flames of war are upon you now, now let's face the fire together!"

"Enough talk!" Said the other captain, drawing a poisonous arrow and putting it onto his crossbow "Let's get the fighting started!" He fires that poison arrow straight towards Varian but he blocks it easily.

Zog charges to Varian, swinging his axes like crazy, swinging them around fast, hitting against his sword and causing him to back away while he keeps swinging them at him. Zog would find an opening while he kept swinging those axes, seeing a quick opening by laying a kick to Varian's chest, pushing him back away and was close for him to fall to the ground. Zog continues his onslaught, leaping in the air, swinging his axes, taking out two Gondorian soldiers in the process.

The other captain runs into the battle, swinging his flaming sword at the Gondorian soldiers, taking them out with one swing, killing a handful of them. Eventually, one of them would be overwhelmed by serious numbers, being impaled three times to the chest by soldiers with their spears. This captain would hold his ground, pushing the men back but not realising Boromir, charging past his men and lays a strong swing of his sword, beheading the captain and sending his body to the floor. After he was dead, he looks to the other captain, quickly raising his shield to block his arrow. He moves closer to the captain while this Uruk keeps firing his crossbow, only hitting his shield and when Boromir got closer, he hits the Uruk in the face with the end of his shield and send it to the floor, wrapping this up with his sword going through the chest.

Varian continues his fight against Zog, finally seeing him tired out after swinging those axes so many times, killing twelve Gondorian soldiers in the process and leaving no mark on Varian yet. Varian rushes forward and clashes again against the two axes with his sword, eventually slicing off one of Zog's hands and laying his sword deep into its chest, sending him on his knees. Before Varian could finish him off, Zog warns him.

"The Banshee Queen will come for you… She will bring all of Mordor, she will destroy you all!" Zog swings his other hand at Varian but he failed to deliver a strike, only hitting against his sword. Varian deflected his attack then sent his blade through the top of the head, splitting his head in half then kicks him to the floor.

With the Overlord killed in battle, the armies of Minas Morgul fled in fear after losing their leader, the armies of Gondor push forward, pushing the enemy back to a point where Varian decides to stop, as he did not want to go any further.

"Hold!" Varian shouts out to his men "Everybody hold!"

Boromir comes and intervenes "But milord, we got the enemy on the road!"

"We are not here to take Minas Morgul. We are here to deliver them a message." Varian said and looks back "Bring the trebuchets closer!"

The trebuchets that are outside the walls starts moving close enough for them to unleash more fireballs. They get new orders from Varian, asking them to fire at the large spire, wasting their ordinance against it until it falls. Varian and his armies hold position at the lower level, staying back and watch while the enemy retreats to the upper levels, sealing the doors shut and waiting for them to come. The trebuchets unleash fire over the walls, targeting the large spire, hitting the middle of it. They continue hitting the tower until it cannot hold anymore, the damage dealt to it breaks a part, pieces of bricks, debris falls from the tower, and very soon, it snaps. The top part of the tower breaks off, falling from the sky and crashing at the bottom, unleashing a gust of smoke throughout the upper level, laying waste to the enemy.

Varian and his men cheer as the tower comes falling on top of the enemy, giving them the victory of Minas Morgul. Once the spire was no more, the armies of Gondor withdraw; returning outside while the trebuchets continue firing until they are out of ammunition, continues to lay waste to the entire fortress. The whole fortress would crumbles to pieces and the Morgul Sorcery that protects this place would eventually fade, slowly fading away the moment the tower fell, making this place into nothing.

* * *

Varian and his army returns, returning to Gondor in triumph against the enemy, returning to Osgiliath where they could celebrate there, not realising what they have just done. This victory would soon come to the ears of the fallen elves in Mordor, both loyal to Sylvanas. One of them is Alistra while the other is Anya, two elves who have died and brought back from the dead, serving as lieutenants in the fight against Sauron. Both of them were in Cirith Ungol when they heard that Minas Morgul fell, they both travel to Barad-Dur, riding through the wastelands on wild beasts, reaching to the fortress where they come to meet with the Banshee Queen.

Sylvanas sits there in her silver and blue armoured plating, covering her body. She wears her long black cape on her back but no sign of the hood on her back, she still had the master ring on her finger, still glowing blue coloured language. On the side of her throne was a weapon, leaning against the side of her throne, a sword with markings on both sides of the blade and a skull on both sides in front of the handle.

The two elves came into the room, going on one knee and lowering their heads, reporting to Sylvanas about the situation in Minas Morgul. Sylvanas felt crossed after hearing this situation, soon turn to astonished, surprised to seeing that Gondor would do something like this, seeing as Gondor has changed and is not weaker than she thought it would be. After hearing all of this, Sylvanas got off her throne and took her sword, dragging the blade against the floor and walks past them, soon to raise the sword and lean it over her shoulder. She travels to the war room with the two, entering a large room with a round table in the middle, it has the map of Middle-Earth on it. Alistra and Anya walks around the table and looks at the map then to Sylvanas while she stands in front of it, soon to take the knife that is sticking on the map, stabbed onto a location in middle-Earth, when Sylvanas pulls the dagger out, the mark shows the location is the Shire in the west. She held onto the dagger and talks to the two while looking at the map, saying something in one area then gets her eyes looking to another place.

"Easterlings of the north… The tribesmen of the east… The Haradrim from the south…" She stops and aims her dagger towards the region of Gondor "And now the men from the west."

"We are completely surrounded." The Anya said "The Easterlings are done fighting the men of the east, they now target us now. The Haradrim are also working on an alliance with the men of the east."

Sylvanas places the dagger on the map while leaning her sword against the table as she places both hands on the table and leans forward while looking at the map "I own Mordor, not the Dark Lord. All servants of Sauron will eventually get what is coming to them, even those who dare stand in my way from achieving my goals."

"We have already lost Minas Morgul." Anya said "Gondor is not a target."

"Gondor is standing against us." Alistra said, looking at Anya while she looks back at her "They have declared war against the Forsaken. If they keep this victory, they will try to spread into Mordor and claim Cirith Ungol."

"It doesn't matter that they destroyed Minas Morgul." Sylvanas said, moving away from the table and getting the two to look back at her "They cannot stop the Forsaken." She takes her blade and departs from the war room, having the two to look at one another before following her, staying behind her while she walks somewhere else.

Sylvanas enters one more door and came into a balcony, looking out at the massive view of her fortress, seeing as they stand so high inside Barad-Dur, looking down at her massive army that surrounds Barad-Dur. Her armies of all kinds, orcs, ogres, Olog-Hai, Uruks, Drakes and even an army of the dead, some are humans that she took from those who have attacked Mordor. All of them are here, to come to serve the Banshee Queen, to serve her and the master ring that brings them all into the darkness.

"I will take everything from Sauron, take his armies, kingdoms and all that he possess, only then can I be satisfied. Anyone else that dare stands in my way and my warriors, they will suffer at the hands of all of Mordor. " Sylvanas said while standing by the edge of the balcony. She turns her head to the side to the elves "We have a job to do here."

* * *

With the discovery of the One Ring finally located, Sylvanas makes her move against Sauron before he does. Since Sauron still has his mind over the dominion of Mordor, he could see and hear everything from where he is but is still stuck at the top of the tower, fighting against Celebrimbor. Since he remains here, he now knows everything Sylvanas knows, knowing the location of the One Ring and plans to counteract against this.

Far in the west in one of Sauron's fortresses that still holds his dark malice is all what is left of his army and champions. In his fortress of Dol Guldur, this massive structure, slowly expanding for a long time after losing Mordor, increasing its corruption across the forest and building a massive army to invade the elven lands. The Nazgul that now remains here in Dol Guldur, waiting for the opportunity to come out of this fortress. That there is now when the One Ring is finally located, found within the Shire, causing the Nazgul to finally ride out of here, riding out of this fortress, riding on black horses and wearing black cloaks to cover their wraith appearance to everyone.

* * *

Meanwhile, the forces of good have finally found the location of the One Ring, now needs to plot an offensive against the enemy but they have no idea what is really happening in the east. Only a few people in the west knows the situation in Mordor, knowing nothing of what is happening and knows nothing about Sylvanas and her master ring that rivals the One Ring. Someone is going to get the answers and that is a fellow wizard named Gandalf, the wizard who is fond of the Hobbits and wishes for the men of the west to defeat the coming darkness. He now wishes to try and counter against Sauron's power, the first things first is to get the ring out of the Shire.

Gandalf departs from the Shire after leading the ring bearer out of there, helping him and his fellow Hobbit friend escape. He asks for the two younglings to travel to the tavern in Bree where he will find them. After that, he departs, riding out of there and riding to the south, taking his trip to an old friend that lies in Isengard, meeting up with Saruman the White, the wisest and noble wizard of them all.

Gandalf and Saruman discuss about the Ring of Power outside the tower of Orthanc, walking through the forest together, telling Saruman that the ring was right under his nose, hidden within the Shire. Gandalf believes now that with the location of the ring, the people of Middle-Earth could still counter against Sauron before he could make his move. Saruman would stop him there, warning him that there is no more time and tells him of what is happening inside the lands of Mordor.

Saruman explain the details inside Orthanc, speaking to Gandalf in his quarters, explaining the situation about Sauron and Sylvanas but he starts off with Sauron first.

"Sauron has regain much of his former strength." Saruman said to Gandalf "He cannot yet take physical form but his spirit has lost none of its potency. Concealed within his fortress, the Lord of Mordor sees all. His gaze pierces cloud, shadow, earth and flesh. You know of what I speak, Gandalf."

Gandalf sits there looking back at Saruman, leaning on his wooden staff, listening in worried. Saruman would continue. "The Great Eye, lidless, weathered in flame."

"The Eye of Sauron." Gandalf mutters when saying it.

"But things have now changed, old friend." Saruman said "Sauron no longer has any hold within Mordor, a new foe has come to take his place, claiming the lands of Mordor and seizing all of his armies and fortresses. What is left of Sauron's army plans to retake Mordor, his followers are organising his forces. If he claims Mordor, he'll summon an army great enough to launch an all-out assault on Middle-Earth."

"What are you talking about?' Gandalf asks "How is there someone in Mordor controlling his army?"

Saruman explains "There is a woman in there. Her army calls her the Banshee Queen, the new ruler of Mordor. She has claim Barad-Dur and dominated his armies, she now has Sauron where he is. She wields a Power of the Ring, another ring that matches the One Ring."

"How? The only ones who could forge a ring such as that are Sauron and…."

"Celebrimbor." Saruman said "He is in Mordor, unable to depart to the afterlife, stuck as a wraith. He now remains there the same way as Sauron. The Banshee Queen now wields this ring and with it, she plans to overthrow Sauron and become the new Dark Lord of this age."

"You know this? How?" Gandalf asks again

Saruman looks down in the corridor "I have seen it."

Gandalf and Saruman leave that room and enter the main throne room of Saruman, entering this dark room with a pedestal in the centre. There is an orb on the pedestal but is covered by a black cover. When approaching the orb, Gandalf worries, believing that the enemy knows what they know if they continue using this.

"A Palantir is a dangerous tool, Saruman." Gandalf worries when approaching the pedestal, walking around it and looking at Saruman as he stands on the other side

"Why?" Saruman asks "Why should we fear to use it?" He takes the cover off the Palantir and gazes upon this orb that shows black clouds slowly moving inside of it.

"They are not all accounted for." Gandalf said when looking back to Saruman, saying "The lost seeing stones. We do not know who else may be watching." He takes the cover and places it over the Palantir, causing a sudden spike the moment he touches it. The moment he touches the orb, he saw only for a split second of the flaming Eye of Sauron.

Saruman would walk to his throne while saying this "The hour is later than you think. Sauron's forces are already moving, the Banshee Queen is organising her armies. There war will spread across Middle-Earth until one of them wins." He looks to Gandalf before taking his seat "The Eight have left Dol Guldur."

Gandalf moves around the pedestal and slowly approaching Saruman "The Eight?"

"The ninth one is with the Banshee Queen. The others have already crossed the River Isen on Midsummers Eve, disguised as riders in black."

"They've reached the Shire?" Gandalf asks

"They will find the One Ring…. And kill the one who carries it."

Gandalf mumbles the name "Frodo!" He then turns his back on Saruman and walks straight towards the exit door behind him. At halfway, the door suddenly shuts. He looks to Saruman while he remains seated, Gandalf would take another door but wherever door he goes to, they shut, one by one, Saruman seals him inside his throne room.

"You did not think a Hobbit could contend with the will of Sauron?" Saruman said, getting Gandalf's attention "Against the power of Mordor, the Banshee Queen has enemies all around her. It won't be long before she loses. There can be no victory on the forces of good." Saruman would lean forward when saying these words "We must join with him, Gandalf. We must join with Sauron, and together we can destroy the Banshee Queen and her armies of the dead."

Gandalf remains speechless, seeing that his old friend, the wisest wizard of all who will fall to madness and serve the Dark Lord. Gandalf would not respond but Saruman would say "It would be wise, my friend."

Gandalf would respond "Tell me… Friend…. When did Saruman the Wise abandon reason for madness?"

Saruman felt angry when he said that, quickly grabbing his staff and attacks Gandalf before he could defend himself. He sent Gandalf flying back, hitting against the wall hard then fell to the ground. Saruman got off his throne and slowly approaches Gandalf, getting a surprise attack from him when Gandalf swung his staff and sent Saruman to the floor. Both these wizards would continue using their staffs, sending one another falling to the floor, dealing damage to their skin and bones but over time, Gandalf was feeling exhausted when fighting Saruman. After Saruman was sent through a door, he would catch Gandalf off guard and take his staff from him, wielding two staffs, he knocked Gandalf back on the floor and gains the victory here against him.

Saruman approaches Gandalf with both points of the staffs aiming at him, holding Gandalf down while he speaks. "I gave you the chance." Saruman said "Of aiding me willingly… But you elected the way of pain!" Saruman finishes this by sending Gandalf into the air, sending him straight up into the ceiling where he will remain trapped, locked above the top of the tower of Orthanc, locking him away so that nobody else would know that Saruman has betrayed the people of Middle-Earth.

* * *

With the One Ring out of the Shire, the Nazgul continue their search for the one who carries it. The Nazgul would not be the only one however, the new wraith who is with Sylvanas would soon arrive, tracking its signal, the same way the Nazgul do. This Nazgul would have to go alone, riding through the lands on his black horse and covering his body with black robes, and with the Nazgul already in the west, it will be a while before he could make it there.

The Hobbits would find trouble along the road, getting so close to the Nazgul, the more they get closer, the more it becomes dangerous. The two Hobbits would end up meeting up with two more Hobbits, causing the four to team up and escape the Nazgul through the night, fleeing to Bree as fast as they can before the Nazgul reach there first. Once they make it there, the Hobbits would end up being stuck in a situation as Gandalf is not here, and will not be coming anytime soon. The four would have to plan a new plan, a new way to get out of Bree and escape the Nazgul and that is to gain help from a man who has been waiting for them for some time now, a ranger who people calls him Strider but his real name is Aragorn.

Aragorn reveals himself to the four little Hobbits, bringing them upstairs, hiding them from the Nazgul when they come storming through the town of Bree. They come for Frodo and the One Ring, searching through the inn and found no sign of them. They now lose their last chance on finding Frodo but they know that he is nearby, under the watch of Aragorn.

When the sun rises, Aragorn takes the Hobbits to the east, to Rivendell where the Nazgul must face the elves if they should pursue them. They travel through a long way, moving through the

At the cover of the night, Aragorn makes camp at the old ruins of Weathertop. He gives them swords while he goes out there, watching under the night to see if the Nazgul have found them yet. With Aragorn gone, the Hobbits would take a break inside the ruins, resting for now and wait for Aragorn to return. Frodo rests nearby but he wakes up early, hearing the others talking to one another and he could smell fire. He quickly got up and turns around, seeing the three sitting by the campfire they made, this wild up Frodo because they are giving themselves to the enemy's position if they are nearby.

The Nazgul arrives just in time when the light went out in Weathertop, the Hobbits would come to the top of the ruins and looks down at the bottom, seeing them all moving along the marsh and fog. The Hobbits quickly prepare themselves, drawing swords and stays together in the centre of this place, looking at all sides, waiting for them to come to them. Frodo would be the first to have his eyes upon a Nazgul, seeing one in his black robes, drawing his sword and walking straight towards them. The rest of the Nazgul came forth with their swords drawn, moving together, they all take aim and prepare for the kill. The Hobbits would cower together in fear, they back away slowly while the Nazgul advance, with no skills in combat, they would not last a few seconds against them but that would change.

The Nazgul stop their advance and raise their heads up, looking towards someone who comes before them. Frodo looks back and notices another Nazgul, the ninth wraith. He came into the ruins, drawing two swords and approaches the Hobbits, catching them in the middle. The Nazgul looks down at Frodo then to the others, he walks straight towards them, having the Hobbits look back at this one then moves to the side, realising that this one is not here for them right now. Once that wraith moves past them, the Hobbits would make a run for it while this one quickly attacks, engaging battle with all eight of the Nazgul, fighting them here at the top of Weathertop.

The Hobbits make their move down the ruins of Weathertop, running down to the ground while this Nazgul continues fighting, clashing against them all, taking a few hits buy ignores them and continues fighting. During the fighting, four of them would break off and go after the Hobbits while the other four deal with the betrayer here. They continue clashing swords while the four move around them and go sprinting after the Hobbits, seeing as they cannot get that far. Once they catch up, Sam drew his sword and swings it at the Nazgul in order to protect Frodo, clashing against them for only a second, they sent him to the floor. Merry and Pippin take up arms and stands in front of Frodo, both scared and afraid, they did not attack, the Nazgul simply push them to the side and all that is left standing is one Hobbit.

Frodo cowers and drops his sword, he turns away but he fell to the floor while the Nazgul advance. With no hope of surviving, he looks down at his pocket and takes out the One Ring, catching all four of their eyes gazing upon the ring. One of them would move forward while drawing another blade, holding two swords, he prepares to use the small blade against Frodo but before he could attack, Frodo puts on the ring and became invisible. This here would bring the attention to the others on Weathertop, getting them all to stop and look to the side, towards the location where Frodo is. The Nazgul who is the betrayer would settle this fight later, turning away, he makes a run towards the ring while the others chase after him.

The one Nazgul approaches Frodo, getting closer to him, forcing him to put on the ring and become invisible. Frodo would see what they all look like, seeing all of the Nazgul in front of him. The ones that battled at Weathertop came down here and Frodo would see them too, seeing them all, different and wraith form underneath their robes but the one who is against them was different. The Nazgul who is working with Sylvanas appears different, a humanoid but in a darker state, either he is not as old like the others or something else that Frodo does not know yet. While he remains invisible, the Nazgul in front of him reaches out, trying to catch the ring, forcing Frodo's hand to move closer, unable to control himself until the moment the two were so close to touch, Frodo backs away and the Nazgul lunges his sword through his chest.

Frodo cries out in pain while invisible, with all hope for him slowly fading away, Aragorn, son of Arathorn arrives on the scene, jumping into the fray with his sword and a flaming torch, swinging them both at the Nazgul and pushing them away. He went up against all of them while Frodo lays there in pain, soon to take the ring off and reveal himself to everyone. Sam would notice this and rushes towards him, tending to his injuries while Aragorn keeps fighting against them. During the fight, one of the Nazgul caught on fire by the flaming torch, it would move back and bump into another one, catching the other Nazgul on fire. Aragorn would burn three of their robes while the rest retreat, all would disperse and flee from the scene while the Hobbits form together. One more Nazgul was left and that was the betrayer, approaching the Hobbits with his two swords. Aragorn turns back and notices him, just when the Nazgul looks to Aragorn, he took a hit in the face by the torch, burning his upper body and sending him fleeing into the darkness.

The Nazgul have failed to capture the ring but they have delivered serious damage to the Hobbits, never going to be resting anytime soon. Frodo would be the only one who is in trouble right now because of the wound, revealing the stab wound came from a Morgul Blade, a weapon that can turn him into a wraith like them. Aragorn picks up Frodo and the team makes their escape, moving through the forest to find somewhere to take a break and find something to help cure Frodo.

The Nazgul would reform after that whole incident, regrouping together and half the ones who were caught on fire to discard their robes for now, showing their white wraith form in the darkness. Not all the wraith are accounted for as the Witch King himself was not here, not pursuing the One Ring but the other Nazgul who fled in another direction. The Witch King would go after this Nazgul, catching up to him after he discarded his black robes, revealing himself. This Nazgul turns and notices the Witch King nearby, approaching him with his Morgul Blade and longsword at the ready.

The Witch King speaks out to him, calling out his name that has not been heard for a long time. His name was once remembered as the last king of Gondor, the king who travelled into Mordor to challenge the Witch King into a duel but he never returned, his name was "Eärnur." The Witch King says "You have betrayed the Dark Lord. You were meant for great things, to serve him and be part of the Nazgul. You have failed us."

"I serve the Banshee Queen." King Eärnur responds while aiming his blade towards him "Sauron is weak, once she decimates the entire lands of the east, she is coming for the ring and all who still serve him."

Soon, the Nazgul returns to the Witch King, all seven of them moves around Eärnur, surrounding him and holding onto their swords. All of them would move forward together, closer to him while the Witch King says this "You have become a failure to us. Now we will rewrite our mistakes, by taking that ring off of you and finding a new owner." The Witch King lunges out at Eärnur and so does the others, overwhelming Eärnur and taking him down.


	2. Chapter 2

In the lands of the Far East, past Mordor and Rhun lies a large landscape of land in the east, a place that can be stretch from Arnor to Harad, a massive land, populated by men and dwarves and has been under the control of the Easterlings of Rhun. This large land has been under their control for thousands of years, holding this land, they are able to rebuild their armies very quickly. The populations in the east is force to serve the Easterlings, those who are ready to wield a weapon must depart and join the Easterlings in Rhun. Everyone in the east, both dwarves and men must forcefully work with the Easterlings on fighting the enemies of the west, namely Gondor. This land is the only reason for the Easterlings to maintain a strong formidable force, they are able to restore thousands of lost soldiers in the past.

The Kingdom of Rhun has become a strong power house in the east, thanks to the resources they gain from the east, they are able to continue serving Sauron even though he lost Mordor but they too will soon feel the same way when a new threat is happening inside the eastern lands. The lands they have held for thousands of years would soon fall to a new faction, a faction of survivors who once held over Mordor thirty years ago. Lithariel, the daughter of Queen Marwen of the Tribesmen of Nurn, she brought her warriors with her to the east long ago when Sauron returned to Mordor. She left the lands of Mordor and tried to make settlement in the east, inside the enemy lines of the Easterlings. In the lands of the east, she would come across survivors of Mordor, meeting up with the slaves of Mordor and also the Gondorian survivors who have been fighting inside Mordor, all came together in the east to form a new united army.

Lithariel became the new queen after her mother died against the Easterlings, she took the title and commands the armies on trying to claim the lands of the east from the Easterlings. She took a few years but eventually gathered all the tribes and citizens of this land, bringing them under her control and together they swept across the east, pushing the Easterlings out of this land and back into Rhun. The Easterlings suffered greatly after the loss of their land, they now must fight against two fronts, fighting against Lithariel and her new kingdom in the east and fight against the Banshee Queen from Mordor.

After long years of peace and control over the eastern lands, the people of the east would call this land the Kingdom of Marwen in memory of Queen Marwen. Over time, war would return to these lands once again when Lithariel passed away and left the kingdom to her son, King Darrius. She named him in memory of one of her lieutenants who fought valiantly during the war in the east, fighting against the Easterlings until eventually being overwhelm. King Darrius took the throne a few years ago, keeping this land safe from the Easterlings, as well as help fighting against the orcs from Mordor. He decided he has had enough, wishing to attack Mordor but needs allies, which is why he wishes to set his eyes to the far south, to the people of the southern lands.

Today, in the Kingdom of Marwen, in the far southern end of this land, past the south east of Mordor is where the king is right now. He brought a company of his warriors with him, coming to the borders of his land to meet with the Haradrim Warriors for diplomacy and for an alliance to face the Forsaken. The Lands of Harad have been in serious turmoil after Sauron lost Mordor. The south has been locked in conflict between each other, one leader wants to rule over the whole south and plan to claim Mordor while the other side wants to change. A new faction that they call the Defias Brotherhood, forging allies of Haradrim Warriors, Corsair Pirates and all sorts of people in the south to unite under her command. Vanessa VanCleef, the daughter of Edwin VanCleef now takes command of the Defias Brotherhood. She has come with a company of her warriors to meet with King Darrius to settle the first relationship between these two lands.

"You're late." King Darrius said

"I have been busy." Vanessa responds "It is hard to leave my warriors out there without their leader, let us make this meeting quick and return to battle."

"Well let's cut to the chase then. You know why I am here and you know what I want, the Banshee Queen has stayed in Mordor for far too long, she is summoning her armies to attack everyone that surrounds her. I know the men of the far south is in league with Sauron but –"

"Stop right now." Vanessa intervenes "We no longer serve Sauron. True there is a few of his loyalists still here but I plan to wipe them out."

"I'm surprised." Darrius said "You people in the south are always loyal to Sauron."

"Not after what just happened in Mordor. Sauron no longer has control, he can't control his armies, his lieutenants, and he can't do a damn thing but watch as everything he owns falls from his grasp. This is the first time someone else is taking his place, which is why I don't want anything to do with the Banshee Queen."

"She took something from you…. Didn't she?"

Vanessa hesitated at first when hearing that question, she looks away for the moment then sighs slightly when looking back to him and responds "My father was killed in Mordor, slain by the Banshee Queen and her walking dead orcs. My father may have served Sauron but not me, I don't serve the Dark Lord, and neither does my people."

"Then we both should work together. If we unite as one and attack Mordor from the rear, we may have a chance on delivering serious blows to the Banshee Queen herself."

"And what am I going to achieve if I should join your alliance?" Vanessa asks

"I know you want something besides making the Banshee Queen suffer." Darrius said "I propose this. If we take the lands of the east of Mordor, I want you to take the lands of Nurnen while I take the lands of Seregost."

"So you want the Banshee Queen's fortress over the lands you and your ancestors once ruled over? I am surprise you would let me have it."

"I have been thinking about it and I know others would say that I am doing the bad decision on allowing you to take those lands. But this is bigger than that, I want this alliance to be made and I wish to end this. I know you wouldn't take Seregost because it is too far, so I am allowing you to take the lands of Nurnen. My people already have a new land and I vow to hold it against any enemy who tries to take it from me."

"Hmn…" Vanessa lowers her head slightly, slightly laughing then looks back to Darrius "I like your valour, King Darrius. The Haradrim and the lands of the south accepts this alliance. We will see each other in battle, for now you should be ready to face the evils that lurks within Mordor."

"There's one more thing before we depart." Darrius said "I need a favour to ask you, as a former servant to the Dark Lord Sauron."

"And that is….."

"I know your people are still allied with the Easterlings of Rhun. I know they are also trying to claim Mordor, so this is my proposal. I want you to make contact with the Easterlings, tell them that my side and your side is preparing to attack Mordor from the rear, which will give them the chance for them to attack Mordor from the north."

"A very clever strategy, using the Easterlings to attack Mordor. What is stopping them from attacking your lands?"

"There is no way the Easterlings have time to take the Kingdom of Marwen, even if they do try to attack us while I am away, they do not have time to take its resources, rebuild its armies and attack Mordor."

"Very well then." Vanessa nods and turns away "I'll see you on the frontlines. We'll work together coordinate attacks on Mordor, starting the island of Nurnen."

"Three days." King Darrius said "That's how long you'll need. Will you be there?"

"Of course." Vanessa looks back to Darrius "You be sure not to double cross me Darrius."

"I was about to say the same thing to you."

Vanessa and her warriors depart from the border and return to their lands, there they travel to their fortress in Harad where she will organise her army. King Darrius turns back and departs, returning to the Kingdom of Marwen and travel to the fortress of Stromgarde, there he organises his forces to launch an attack on Mordor.

In the Lands of Gondor, the men in Osgiliath celebrate a well done success after the fall of Minas Morgul thanks to General Varian Wrynn. He and his knights have return to the city, seeing the citizens and the soldiers here celebrate, cheering for their victory against the enemies of the east. Varian, Boromir and Faramir came riding through at the front of their armies, seeing the people cheering, applauding them for what they have done. Once they get off their horses, Varian would walk through the crowd, climb up to a ruin building, standing high above and looks down at everyone else.

"Today we brought a big push at the heart of Mordor. Minas Morgul lies in ruins thanks to us. We have stuck our sword through Mordor for the first time in hundreds of years, today is when we take back what belongs to us. For Gondor!"

Everyone rejoice and cheer, raising their fists and swords in the air, calling out his name Varian a few times. He remains up there with his sword in the air, smiling when looking down at everyone. He would eventually come down and join them, placing his sword away and shaking their hands while he moves through the crowd, meeting up with Boromir and Faramir in a small area where they could relax and get a drink.

Varian takes his cup and raise it towards Faramir and Boromir "To Victory."

Both Boromir and Faramir raise their cups and said the same thing Varian just said to them. They all drink at the same time, emptying their cups and exhaling when finish drinking all of that.

An Ithilian Ranger came into the scene and interrupting the three, bringing a sealed scroll and delivers it to Varian. He looks at the young man then takes the scroll and looks at it for the moment then opens it up, reading it while the young man turns back and walks away.

"What is it?" Faramir asks when standing up off his seat, standing behind Varian

"It is a summons." Varian said "It seems that the elves of Rivendell is calling for a council, calling for us, the dwarves and elves from other places in Middle-Earth. It looks like they want me to be there."

"You can't leave Osgiliath." Boromir said "Not while the enemy is next door."

"He's right." Said Faramir "You know that the orcs won't accept this victory, they will come for blood and they will come for Osgiliath."

"I know but I can't simply deny this proposal, someone needs to speak for Gondor at the council about the situation in Mordor."

"Then let me do it." Boromir steps forward

Faramir turns his head to him, surprised he would say that "Boromir."

"Osgiliath can't fall. We can't defend this place without our general. Let me ride out for Gondor, I'll take your place in the seat of the council."

"Are you sure you should do that?" Faramir asks 'You know what father would say about this."

"I know." Boromir said when looking to Faramir then to Varian "But I am going to miss fighting by your side again on fighting against the enemy in Osgiliath."

"I know." Varian places one hand over his shoulder "The enemies of Mordor will be waiting for you when you return."

"You think father will allow this?" Faramir asks Boromir

"I'm sure he'll be alright. This is just a council, not a battle that we'll be going to."

"If you say so."

And so Boromir drinks with Varian and Faramir once more before he must depart, drinking with others for a time, celebrating with them as he knows it will be a long time before he would return to Osgiliath again. He stays until he prepares to depart in the middle of the night, discarding his Gondorian armour and putting on light clothing, saying his farewell to his men and to his brother before he gets on his horse. The gates of Osgiliath opens and he rides straight out of there, riding into the open plain field and going straight to Rivendell.

Once he is gone, Varian returns to his men and organise a defence on the other side of the city, knowing that the enemy will plan for an attack after what happen to Minas Morgul. Faramir remains on the broken walls, watching his brother depart but he turns back and organises his Ithilian Rangers. Faramir and his rangers also depart from Osgiliath and travel to the north, watching the areas of the north so if the enemy arrives on that side, he could either ambush them or retreat and warn Varian that the enemy is coming.

Meanwhile in the elven city of Rivendell, the Hobbits have made their long trip to meet with the elves for the first time and for Frodo to reunite with Gandalf once again. The One Ring now lies under the protection of the elves but they too worry of what is to come, Lord Elrond worries about the situation, even learning about what Gandalf told him about what is going on in Mordor. The Banshee Queen desires to find the One Ring, to get it away from Sauron.

Right now, both Elrond and Gandalf discuss their new plan on what to do with the One Ring, and to know what to do with Frodo, since he pose no bonds to the evil of the ring for now. Elrond would wonder if he could hold onto the ring more, seeing as he can be able to withstand its evil for the moment but Gandalf does not like this idea, seeing as he does not want Frodo to bear the burden of this anymore. Elrond would feel annoyed when turning to Gandalf, warning him of what is happening.

"Gandalf, the enemy is moving. What is left of Sauron's forces are massing to the west. His eye is fixed on Rivendell. Saruman, you tell me, has betrayed us and this Banshee Queen has all of Mordor all of her command, which means our list of allies grows thin."

"His treachery lies deeper than you think." Gandalf said while approaching Elrond "Saruman has crossed orcs with goblin-men, he's breeding an army in Isengard, an army that can move in sunlight and cover great distance in speed. He and Sauron would use their armies to try and conquer Middle-Earth then challenge the Banshee Queen into submission. Saruman knows he can't take the New Ring from the Banshee Queen, which is why he is going after Sauron's Ring."

"This evil cannot be concealed by the power of the elves." Elrond said "We do not have the strength to fight both Mordor and Isengard!"

Gandalf sighs slightly while turning away from Elrond, walking away from him but he would stop when Elrond would say "Gandalf…. The ring cannot stay here."

Gandalf stops at the balcony and looks out at the view of this place, soon to notice that Rivendell is about to get company. A group of riders, here as embassies from Gondor, the elves and the dwarves. Boromir is seen riding through first, coming here with some of the men by his side, the elves would come through next. Legolas would come through, along with his friends from other elven lands like Vereesa and Lor'themar Theron. The dwarves like Gimli, Moira, Muradin and Falstad, all here to be part of the council.

"This peril belongs to all Middle-Earth." Elrond said when slowly approaching Gandalf "They must decide now how to end it. The time of the elves is over. My people are leaving. Who will you look to when we are gone? The dwarves? They hide in riches and care nothing of the troubles of others."

Gandalf moves off the balcony and looks to Elrond "It is of men that we must place our hope."

Afterwards, the council is ready, the elves, the dwarves and men are here with Elrond and the others, sitting in a circle with a pedestal in the centre, here to discuss their next plan against Sauron and the Banshee Queen. Elrond would speak out first, standing up off his seat and speaks to all the people here.

"Strangers from distant land, friends of the elves. You've been summoned here to answer the threat of Sauron and the threat of the Banshee Queen. Middle-Earth is on the brink of destruction. None can escape these two foes clashing against each other and none can escape it. You will unite, or you will fall. Each race is bound to this fate, this one doom." Elrond would stop and turns his head to Frodo who sits here with the others "Bring forth the ring, Frodo."

Frodo gets off his seat and walks straight towards the pedestal. He takes out the One Ring and places it down in the middle then turns away and takes his seat, showing everyone here that it is real. Everyone would gaze their eyes upon the One Ring, speaking to one another while still having their eyes fixed on it. All of Middle-Earth is now in the fate of something so little, something that can corrupt anyone here if they put their hands over it.

Boromir would be the one to speak out to everyone here, seeing as he has an idea of what to do with the ring. "It is a gift. A gift to the foes of Mordor." Boromir would say when riding up off his seat "Why not use the ring? Long has my father, the steward of Gondor and my closest friend Varian have kept the forces of Mordor at bay. By the blood of our people kept your lands safe. Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy. Let us use it against them both, we can defeat the Banshee Queen and the Dark Lord."

"You cannot wield it." Aragorn intervenes, getting his attention towards him "None of us can. The One Ring answers to Sauron alone, it has no other master."

"And what would a Ranger know of this matter?" Boromir asks

"This is no mere Ranger." Legolas steps in, rising from his seat and getting Boromir to turn around to see him "He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance."

Boromir would look surprise when turning back to Aragorn while he sits there looking back at him. "Aragorn…." Boromir mutters his name "This… Is Isildur's heir?"

"And heir to the throne of Gondor." Legolas said

"Sit down Legolas." Aragorn would say, speaking in elven language, making Legolas to sit back down and remain quiet

Before he would sit, Boromir turns to Legolas and says "Gondor has no king." He then turns to Aragorn "If there was a king I would follow, it would be Varian." He returns to his seat and sits back down

"Aragorn is right." Lor'themar intervenes while remaining seated "Isildur was the first to wield this weapon in the first place. We all know what happened to him. He died and his body was never seen again, same goes to this." He looks at the One Ring then looks towards Boromir "Isildur thought this was a weapon but it was a curse, a curse for anyone who lays a finger on it. That man should have destroyed it when he had a chance but he chose power."

"Why not let these two lords destroy each other?" Moira asks "It's not like there fighting us, let them wipe each other out."

"You do realise there will be a winner, you know that right?" Lor'themar said "If Sauron wins, he'll take back Mordor and attack us… If this Banshee Queen wins, she will raise a powerful army and attack us."

Elrond rises from his seat "You have only one choice. The One Ring must be destroyed."

Boromir felt slightly irritated by this decision, still believing that he and the people of Gondor could use the Ring. Everyone here would soon agree with this decision on destroying the One Ring.

Gimli would suddenly step in, grabbing his axe that was next to him and rises from his seat "What are we waiting for?" Gimli said when approaching the pedestal, surprising Elrond and Gandalf when he hits the Ring with his axe. The sheer might and power of the One Ring cancelled his attack, breaking his axe and sending Gimli to the floor with what is left of his weapon. The One Ring would take no damage, no mark whatsoever but it did hurt Frodo when he felt a suddenly pain spike, feeling hurt when the ring was touched by a weapon.

Elrond would warn Gimli the warnings on harming the Ring in such a barbaric way, saying "The ring cannot be destroyed, Gimli, son of Gloin by any craft that we here possess. The Ring was made in the fires of Mount Doom. Only then can it be unmade." Elrond turns his eyes left to right at everyone here, telling them what must be done "It must be taken deep within Mordor and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came. If the ring is destroyed then Sauron will no longer hold Middle-Earth anymore, the Banshee Queen would also lose her strength in Mordor, this here must be done and one of you… Must do this…"

Everybody here remain quiet for the moment but Boromir would intervene yet again, bringing up the famous quote ever "One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep. The Great Eye is ever watchfulness in that barren wasteland, riddled with fire, and ash and dust. The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume and what makes things worse is who rules over those lands. Even if we do get past the flaming eye, you still need to deal with the Banshee Queen and her army of the dead. Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly."

"You have already set things emotion now. Boromir." Elrond said "The Banshee Queen will now come for you and all of Gondor after what you have done."

"Somebody had to do it and it might as well be us." Boromir responds "I don't see any of you picking up arms to fight her." He looks to Vereesa "She is one of your kind."

Vereesa looks away unhappy, not responding to Boromir or getting involve in this discussion, knowing who the Banshee Queen is, she decides to keep her opinions and her emotions to herself. Lor'themar looks to Vereesa and notices her upset, he looks to Boromir and says "I know we all see the Banshee Queen is nothing but an enemy to Middle-Earth. However, she is not a friend to Sauron, which is good for us, we finally have someone pushing Sauron back, damaging his plans and destroying his armies. This here may be our last opportunity to strike now, this maybe our last chance at defeating Sauron once and for all."

"The Banshee Queen is an enemy of Sauron and is also now an enemy of us!" Said Moira who sits next to Gimli "I say let them destroy each other and when the sun clears we wipe out whoever is left standing, it's so simple."

"Have any of you forgotten at what Lord Elrond said?" Legolas intervenes, rising from his seat and speaks out to everyone in the room "The ring must be destroyed!"

"And I suppose you think you be the one to do it?" Gimli asks, raising his voice over him

"And if we fail, what happens…." Boromir stands up and raises his voice too "What happens when Sauron takes back what is his?"

Gimli gets off his seat and stares at Legolas "I'll be dead if I see the ring in the hands of an elf!"

The moment he antagonised him, the rest of the elves would rise up from their seats, speaking in elven language for the moment but they speak English. Legolas would have his hand in front of them to stop them from moving forward. Everyone else would rise from their seats and intervened, shouting back at the others, raising their voices while some would remain quiet, watching this bickering go on for a while. Gandalf steps in and try to reason with them, stepping into this argument, warning them that Sauron's power is growing, the same goes to the Banshee Queen, warning them that even though Minas Morgul is destroyed, the rest of Mordor will rise up to avenge it. His voice and warning would not work on them, the argument would continue to spread like wild fire until someone puts the fire out.

A voice would cry out to the people who are still arguing, calling out "I will take it!" However, their ears did not hear him but when he said it again, he would get Gandalf to stop and slowly turn towards Frodo, seeing it was him who said it. He would get everyone's attention when he says that he will take the One Ring to Mordor. This would quiet everyone down, surprised to see this Hobbit would say something like that, knowing the words of what Boromir said earlier, Frodo still insisted that he can do this.

Frodo remains quiet when looking at the others when they look back at him, eventually speaking out and says "Though…. I do not know the way…."

Gandalf would step in first, walking to Frodo, placing his hand on his shoulder and says "I will help you bear the burden, Frodo Baggins, as long as it is yours to bear."

Aragorn rises from his seat and be the second person to help Frodo Baggins "If by my life or death I can protect you…. I will." He then approaches Frodo and went down on one knee "You have my sword."

"And you have my bow." Legolas said, walking towards Frodo

"And my axe!" Said Gimli

Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn and Gandalf stands next to Frodo, accepting this quest to follow Frodo into Mordor. Not just four of them would join as Boromir himself approaches them, getting their attention, saying "You carry the fates of us all, little one. If this is indeed the will of the council, then Gondor will see it done."

After finishing that sentence, Sam would interrupt this moment by coming out of hiding and comes rushing straight to Frodo and standing alongside him, saying "Frodo isn't going anywhere without me."

"No needed its likely not possible to separate you even when he's summoned to a secret council and you are not."

Both Merry and Pippin was standing nearby, hearing about this, they quickly came out of hiding and rushes into this. Both of them ran past Elrond and stood together with Frodo and the others, participating in this quest. Elrond looks at the Hobbits then at all of them, noticing that there is nine of them, nine companions for this quest and hereby forms this group as the Fellowship of the Ring.


	3. Chapter 3

The Fellowship of the Ring is now assembled and the heroes prepare themselves for the longest trip to Mordor, through the heart of the enemy. If the Fellowship of the Ring succeeds then the power of the One Ring will be destroyed, along with most of Mordor and most of the Forsaken Army of the dead.

Before the Fellowship of the Ring can set out to Rivendell, elsewhere, in the lost Kingdom of Arnor, a brave warrior would take part in a serious quest, a quest that will change the fate of Arnor and Middle-Earth. This young man named Arthas Menethil is part of the Dunedain, living among the ruin city of Fornost, the lost capital of Arnor. This place lies in ruins but still populated with hundreds of rangers, using this place as a settlement, watching over the lands of the north.

Arthas and his sister Calia just arrived to the capital on horseback, riding inside with a couple more men by their side, once inside, they dismount and join a friend who is inside, training with the men in an open courtyard in swordplay. Arthas and Calia got something to drink before they approach their friend, Alexandros Morgaine. He was watching the others train in swordplay, watching some of them not doing so well and intervenes, showing them what to do.

Alexandros speaks out to his men, walking back and forth while speaking to them "When fighting the orcs, don't expect for them to show you mercy, they are brutal and bloodthirsty and crave for doing battle. They won't hesitate to kill you, so don't you show the creatures no mercy!" He then draws his sword from his back and holds onto it with two hands "Now let me show you how to…." He stops what he is doing when noticing Arthas and Calia approaching him on the right. He looks back to his men then towards one of his sons named Darion who was standing among the others. "Darion. Take over from here."

"Yes father." Darion comes out of line and stands where Alexandros was before while he walks away, approaching Arthas and Calia.

Alexandros comes up to Arthas, placing his sword on his back again then shakes his head, having a smile on his face, grateful for him to be here "Arthas, good to see you again."

Arthas smiles back when shaking his hand "Alexandros."

"Where have you been?" Alexandros lets go of his hand and steps back

"Guarding the west, while you were guarding the east."

"Seven years since we first saw each other. Time really flows by, and look at you…" Alexandros looks down at his torso then raise his head back to his face "You've got taller."

"I was about to say the same thing."

"And Calia…" He looks to her, spreading his arms to give her a hug.

Calia hugs him back "Alexandros."

He lets go of her and backs away "Have you been taking care of your younger brother?"

"I've always been with my brother's side. I'm always the one that has to keep pulling him out of trouble."

Alexandros laughs while Arthas turns his eyes away when she mentions that. He looks back towards the company of Dunedain rangers, seeing them continue training while Darion stops and approaches them. Alexandros steps to the side for his son to come into the conversation, introducing them to his son Darion.

"This is my son Darion."

"Look at you." Arthas shakes his hand "You've grown well."

"Thank you." Darion said then turns to Calia and shakes her hand too.

"My other son Renault is somewhere else, you might see him patrolling the outside."

"Don't worry about it."

"While were together, we shall discuss the new plans." Alexandros turns back "Follow me."

Later that night in Fornost, most of the people sleep inside the ruins while some of the rangers patrol the broken walls and outside the place. Arthas was on the broken walls, soon to get company from Alexandros while Calia was asleep. Arthas turns to Alexandros then back out at the view.

"This land was once part of Gondor." Arthas said "This land held against the enemy for hundreds of years, holding their ground against the Kingdom of Angmar."

"I know the story. Arnor held against the forces of Angmar for five hundred years. Five hundred years… Who would have thought Arnor would put up a heavy fight against them."

"That would have ended early if Gondor got involved, Arnor would still be here if they arrived soon."

Alexandros stands by his side, looking at the view of this place, remaining quiet for a time until he speaks up "Do you think we have a chance against the armies of orcs?"

"I don't know… Were on our own out here but I believe we'll rise up all the time, Arnor hasn't fallen yet and as long as there's people living here, Arnor will return."

Alexandros laughs slightly at what he said and asks "Did you read that from somewhere?"

"No." Arthas turns to him "It came to mind."

"So the plan is to infiltrate the fortress of Carn Dum and gather evidence that there is an army of orcs rising from the north, plotting to invade Arnor once more."

"Yes." Alexandros said "With the men we have here, we should have enough to infiltrate and escape safe and sound."

"I know…" Arthas looks to him "Let's settle this once and for all."

"Yeah." Alexandros yawns and stretches his arms "I'm going to bed. You should too." He looks back to Arthas "Because when the sun rises, were going to war."

Alexandros walks down these steps and jumps down from the walls, finding a place to rest while Arthas remains on the wall for a time. He soon turns away and walks off the walls, finding somewhere to rest while the sentries remain watchful over the darkness. They watch over the ones who are sleeping, staying guard and making sure the enemy do not surprise them, which would not go well because of what is to happen soon.

Meanwhile, inside Rivendell, the council disbands and the Fellowship of the Ring prepares for their long journey into Mordor. The elves who came here stay a while longer while the dwarves and men depart from this place as there is nothing for them here anymore. Lord Elrond wishes for the Fellowship the best of luck, and remind them that the fate of Middle-Earth rest in their shoulders.

Inside the library of Rivendell, Lor'themar came to Vereesa who was inside the library, reading the books of old legend, reading back to the time of the Angmar War. She turns her head to the side when noticing Lor'themar approaching her, she would close the book and places it away and turns towards him.

"Are you alright?" Lor'themar asks while approaching her "You look kind of stressed when leaving that place like you had to get out of there."

"Hearing my sister Sylvanas… Hearing them calling her the enemy, a threat to Middle-Earth."

"You think she isn't?"

"She is fighting in Mordor to break the will of Sauron, to damage him great enough for the people of Middle-Earth to attack. She is doing this for us, Lor'themar…" She walks closer to him "She is on our side, she just wants to destroy Sauron from within that is the whole reason why she is doing this."

"I know you think that she is doing the right thing here because she is your sister." Lor'themar said "But what if she is actually against us? After everything she had to go through, everyone she killed and done for Sauron –"

"She didn't have a choice!" Vereesa raises her voice to him "But somehow she has broken the chains around her neck and is seeking only revenge…."

"Which is why she has become far dangerous now." Lor'themar said "Her vengeance against Sauron, she'll bring anyone down with her in order to get what she wants." He then raise his left hand to her shoulder and says "Listen. The sister you know is dead, she died long ago and this Banshee Queen is just someone taking the form of your dead sister."

"…." Her eyes widen for the moment when he said that, saying his sister is dead and the woman who looks like her is just an image. She lowered her head and steps back, getting his hand off her shoulder. "You have no idea what I have to deal with."

Very soon, someone else comes into this conversation. Glorfindel came forth in his silver armour, wielding his elven sword on his waist. He notices the two staying quiet as he came into an awkward position, seeing Vereesa turning away from Lor'themar. Both the two notices him and both turn their heads towards him.

"Lord Glorfindel." Lor'themar said "What brings you here."

"I thought I could speak to you." Glorfindel said when approaching the two "The both of you. There is something you should know."

"What is it?" Lor'themar asks

Glorfindel responds "Agandaur…."

In the cover of night, Agandaur, the new lieutenant and commander in charge of the Orc army is here in Fornost. He sits on his horse and remains in the darkness, looking out at the ruins of Fornost, noticing braziers are lit, under the protection of the Dunedain Rangers. He remains where he is and watches, watching the orcs moving through the night, catching the sentries off guard, stealth killing the rangers on the north side of Fornost, clearing a path for the rest of the orcs raiders to come storming through the ruins of Fornost. During the sneak attack, one of the rangers held a torch and dropped it onto the grass when he was cut down, causing the ground to light up on fire, spreading quickly while the orcs quickly rush into Fornost. The rangers nearby and those inside the capital notices the fire and signs of activity in the shadows, soon to be revealed as the orcs.

Inside one of the rooms where Arthas lays there on the floor near his sister Calia, he soon hears commotions going on outside and woke up first, sitting up and looking towards the door. He heard people crying out, soon turn to violence when hearing weapons clashing against each other, realising that this is not a training exercise. He got off the ground and drew his sword, just when he was about to go out that door, an Orc kicks it open and charges in. Two orcs came inside the room and looks at Arthas, the two attacks him while Calia got up off the floor when she heard the orcs storming in, quickly moving back against the wall and grabs her shield and sword to defend herself. Arthas battles against the two orcs but took care of them, killing them quickly.

Arthas held onto his sword with two hands, he turns his head to Calia and asks "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She responds "What is going on?"

Arthas looks to the door and says "Were under attack. Get your sword and stay close to me." He runs out the door and rushes into battle, seeing orcs battling against the rangers inside the capital, already killed a handful of men already. He rushes into battle and strikes down the nearest Orc and tries to find Alexandros while keeping an eye of his sister.

Calia rushes into the fight to join Arthas, she looks to her right and shield bashes one Orc and then turns to the left and strikes another with her sword, lodging it through its chest and uses her shield to push the dead Orc back. She looks to Arthas in front of her then towards the orcs, she rushes into the skirmish and battles against the orcs.

Alexandros was seen on the walls, holding his bow, he fired a few arrows at the orcs that came running up the walls and some that are climbing up here from the outside. He killed only five orcs with his bow, force to switch to his sword and held it with two hands, backing away while the orcs in front of him came together and rush towards him. He fought against them alone, swinging his sword around, making them move back to avoid his blade, he cut down a few of them but one manage to hit him in the chest with a mace. He fell back and fell off the wall, hitting the stone floor hard, hitting the back of his head against it, sustaining a heavy injury and a concussion on the head, he was unable to get back up due to hitting the ground very hard. One of the orcs on the ground approaches Alexandros after it killed one of the rangers nearby with a spear, about to finish him off by sending its spear straight through his chest. Help came to Alexandros when his son Darion came to the rescue, sending his sword through the back of the Orc and pushes it to the side, he looks down at his father and rushes over to help him. His other son Renault would be nearby, coming towards him after smashing the face of an Orc with his mace. He came over to assist his brother on protecting Alexandros, staying behind Darion and attacks the orcs that came off the wall, the same ones who attacked Alexandros.

At the front entrance of Fornost, the captain named Zorn the Bloodthirsty who is in charge of this attack happens to be an Uruk captain, a servant of Sauron in Carn Dum. He came into this fight with his spear and a metal shield, wearing silver plated armour from the Mystic Tribe. This captain rushes in and strikes down two rangers in front of him, he looks towards Arthas and three other rangers and Calia as they were all together, clearing the courtyard of orcs.

"Hey man swine!" Zorn calls out to Arthas, getting him and the others to look towards him "It seems there's men here who can put up a fight against my boys. If I had Uruks here, you all would have been dead. I guess it doesn't matter because I'm here and I'm going to kill the lot of you!"

The orcs that stood by the captain rushes towards them, two of them got hit with arrows and fell to the floor at halfway while Arthas and Calia clashes against the others. Zorn raises his bloody spear in the air and rushes into the fight, swinging his spear around, hitting Calia's shield. He rushes to her and kicks her shield, pushing her back then swings his spear to Arthas, hitting against his sword. Zorn knocks Arthas back with his shield, hitting him in the chest and pushing him back.

Arthas looks to Calia while watching Zorn, seeing her getting up and slowly moving to the side behind him. Arthas attacks to distract Zorn, swinging his sword against his shield most of the time and when Calia attacks, she lunges the sword through the left of his shoulder, cutting through his armour but was stuck there. Zorn felt weak when the sword went through his body, he tries to hide it from Arthas when he pushes him back and then turns to the side so he could shield bash Calia, pushing her to the floor again.

Arthas cries out her name "Calia!" He charges in with a rage, swinging his blade against the spear from Zorn when he looks back to him. He broke his spear in the middle then sends his sword through the chest, sending the sword through the other side and sending Zorn to his knees.

Zorn says his last words to Arthas when he pulls the sword out of his chest, saying "The age of men is over… It is our time again… We are coming… And this time… Arnor won't stand against Agandaur!"

On his last stand against Arthas, he pulls a blade from his back and swings at him to take him down with him. Arthas saw it on time and blocks the dagger, deflects the dagger and sends his sword through the head of Zorn, killing Zorn the Bloodthirsty by decapitation. Once he was dead, what is left of the orcs would eventually join Zorn in death.

The battle was finally over after twenty minutes later after the fall of the captain. Most of the orcs died in the battle while only a few manage to escape, retreating back into the darkness while the rangers remain here in Fornost. Once the sun rises, the rangers move outside the capital to collect the dead and put out the fire that is still burning outside, disposing most of the fire but decided to drag the bodies of orcs and dump them onto the fire. Arthas and Renault came together after they lined up all the rangers that died here, lining them up inside the capital while Calia was with Darion, checking to see how Alexandros is doing. He was outside sitting against the rocks, having bandages over his head, still feeling the pain in the back of the head.

Arthas and Renault came to Alexandros after counting all the bodies of the rangers. Alexandros asks first "How many did we lose?"

The two hesitates at first, not wanted to give him the numbers but Arthas responds first, saying "We lost twenty five men and fifteen injured."

"Good lord…"

"The orcs planned this." Calia speaks out "How else would they know we were here."

"They could have just saw us and thought they could attack." Darion said

"I don't think so." Arthas said "I think the orcs wanted this place, thought we were here and wanted to kick us out."

"With a quarter of our men gone…. How are we going to respond?" Alexandros asks "More will come, they will always come back for more blood."

"Any idea to where they came from?" Renault asks when looking to Arthas then looks to Alexandros

"The orcs attacked us from the north." Alexandros said "The only place that lies in the north is…"

"The Kingdom of Angmar…"

"What's the Kingdom of Angmar?" Darion asks

"It was once a kingdom that fought against Arnor for hundreds of years, it was the whole reason why this city fell. Gondor arrived at the end of the war, destroying the fortress of Carn Dum in the north. If that kingdom should rise up again then I don't think we will be getting help from Gondor."

"Then what are we supposed to do then?" Calia asks "We got to get in there and destroy the beasts!"

"How do you plan on doing that?" Renault asks "We lost a quarter of our men and I doubt we'll have the strength to put a siege on that fortress."

"I'm not saying that we should attack the fortress, just saying that maybe we should go on a survey and see what we're dealing with." Calia said

"Your sister knows what she's doing." Alexandros said when looking at Arthas

"Well she is the oldest and has seen a lot of fighting in her time."

"Alright I tell you what, once our rangers are ready to move, take half the company to the north, and find out what we're dealing with."

"You're not coming?" Darion asks

Alexandros sighs and looks to him "Do you honestly think I can go out there and start swinging my sword? I'll be on the ground before an Orc can kill me."

"He's right." Arthas said "He can't be out there. He needs to recover, I'll take over the campaign from here."

Alexandros nods "Agreed."

Arthas looks to Calia "You fine with that?"

"I guess I can go with that, only if you have an idea." Calia crosses her arms and asks "Do you even have an idea?"

"I have a suggestion…."


	4. Chapter 4

In the tower of Orthanc, the white wizard Saruman remains in the top of the tower while his servants of goblins and orcs begin breeding his perfect army, creating his war machine in the catacombs around the tower of Orthanc. His workers have already took out all of the forests and environment inside and outside the place, forging an army worthy of Mordor and worthy of Sauron himself. While this army is being made, Saruman prepares for a reconnaissance mission inside the heart of Mordor, remaining on his throne, he controls the wild birds and orders them to fly straight to Mordor.

The birds of Saruman flew around the top peak of Orthanc before Saruman took control over them, sending the birds flying to the east, flying over the forests of Fangorn and over the mountains, reaching past the marsh and over the Black Gates of Mordor. Once the birds flew over the Black Gate, there lies an army in the far distance, an army of ten thousand warriors of Mordor, all under the command of the Forsaken. The birds flew straight towards them, flying over them as they march, ignoring them while they march to the Black Gate.

Sylvanas was seen on the front line, sitting on an undead horse with two of her elven comrades that are also on undead horses. The three stood on a high point, watching over the Forsaken army while they march. The moment the birds flew close to her, she notices them and looks up, looking at the birds at they start to flying around in circles over her army.

"Is there something wrong milady?" Anya asks Sylvanas

"It's nothing." Sylvanas looks forward then turns her horse around to look at Anya. She gets her horse to walk between Anya and Alistra while she talks, saying "You two are to bring the banners of the Forsaken upon the armies of Gondor. Raise Osgiliath to the ground, destroy it all."

"As you wish milady." Anya nods to her

"What about the enemy from all sides?" Alistra asks her

"The Tower can handle the ones in the east." Sylvanas says "Let us deal with the Easterlings."

"Very well."

Sylvanas and Alistra depart from the fields and left everything to Anya. She remains where she is and watches the army move, marching straight to the Black Gate where it will open up. Anya finally rides out when the gate opens, taking point and leading the long march down to the south to attack Osgiliath from the east.

Sylvanas and Alistra returns to Barad-Dur, organising a massive army of a hundred thousand from Seregost, Barad-Dur and Gorgoroth, sending half her army into the desert lands of Rhun to attack the capital city head on. What is left of her army remains here in Mordor, leaving a hundred thousand of them to stay here, watching over the territories, making sure the forces from the east and south do not attack them from behind.

As for the Kingdom of Marwen, King Darrius makes his move against Mordor, attacking the lands of Nurnen with an army of four thousand men. He made his march towards the most terrified and worst place in Mordor, Ered Glamhoth.

King Darrius reaches to the front of his army on his horse, looking out at this massive fortress, having the same architect design of Dol Guldur and Barad-Dur. This fortress is not just a deadly place that is full of orcs, it also holds to the Tower, the last Black Captain of Sauron. He has made many experiments inside those walls, experimenting on all sorts of methods with his army of Uruks.

King Darrius felt nervous when gazing upon this fortress, suddenly changes when he heard this horn going off from behind him, a horn that is not part of his kingdom. He and his army turns back and notices Vanessa has arrive, bringing her army of Haradrim warriors, making their march straight towards them. King Darrius and his army was not looking at her warriors, instead they look at these two massive beasts they have never seen before, looking at these two large Mumakil's approaching the field.

"What a show off." Darrius said to himself. He looks back at his army and calls out to them "My fellow warriors! This here is our chance, the day is here. Our enemy is finally weaken, and on this day that if we win, and we will win… We will finally be freed from the darkness of Mordor. On this day, we take back our world!"

His army shouts loudly with their swords in the air. Darrius draws his sword and turns back towards the fortress, hearing the horn of Mordor being blown from the fortress, seeing a massive army of Uruks came storming out of the fortress. A large force of Uruks, all from the Terror Tribe. Their bodies are stitch and sewed together, some have their arms replace with sharp weapons while some have their legs or other parts of their body cover in iron plating and the worst part is that all of them are undead. The Tower obtain the power of necromancy, allowing him to wipe out the Terror Tribe, raising them from the dead so he could experiment on them, turning their flesh and blood into steel and blades.

Vanessa and her two Mumakil's took the lead on the assault while the Haradrim Warriors on the ground slows down, allowing them to charge so they could stay at the back. King Darrius and his forces took the lead too, sending the cavalry to ride with Darrius into battle while both armies slowly merge together and charge together from behind. The Uruks continue their charge as they are not slowing down, charging straight towards them. Once both armies get closer, the Mumakil's attack first by moving their heads to the side then swings their large tusks down at them, crushing a handful of them. The two Mumakil's moves straight through them, causing the Uruks to scatter to avoid them but the archers on top of the Mumakil's took aim, raining arrows down upon them.

King Darrius and his cavalry rushes straight through them, cutting through their lines and punching through just like the Mumakil's, weakening the front lines for the main infantry to come charging through next. They charge straight in, clashing against the Uruks and giving them what they want all along, a serious fight.

The cavalry moves around the Mumakil's like a shield, circling them while continue moving through the enemy lines. King Darrius was right at the front, swinging his sword left to right at the Uruks near him and soon clashes against some of the Uruks cavalry too, fighting against mounted Caragor's and Wargs. One of the Wargs manage to tackle Darrius off his horse, sending him to the floor but suffer no injury to the fall or to the beast, he quickly got back up and moves around, avoiding any cavalry near him and avoiding the feet from the large Mumakil's. He engage in some fights against the Uruks during his move around the field, clashing against some and striking them down, some Uruks he struggle to defeat due to most of their body is made of iron. He eventually got help when regrouping with some of his warriors, joining together on clashing against the Uruks nearby, losing some men but he kept moving, trying to find a horse so he could get back on.

Later on in the fight, Vanessa and her Mumakil's moves closer to the fortress, having the Uruks standing on high points, manning the catapults that are place on small platforms. They took out their crossbows and catapults, aiming them towards the Mumakil's, once in position, they open fire. The Mumakil's get attack by a barrage of arrows and a couple of flaming fireballs from the catapults, the arrows did less damage, only killing some men on board but the fireballs dealt some damage to them. Vanessa struggles to maintain control of her beast, she tries to turn it away to avoid the attacks while the men on board try to take aim and shoot back, doing little damage to the Uruks on the walls. The Mumakil near Vanessa took too much hits from the fireballs, taking several hits to the side and lost the man in charge of controlling it, the Mumakil ends up roaming freely across the field. The Mumakil loses control and moves back, turning around and facing back towards the armies, moving straight through and knocking both Uruks and men that gets near it.

"Son of a bitch…" Vanessa says to herself, watching the other Mumakil moving away. She looks forward and takes control, turning her Mumakil back and target the ground forces while moving away from the fortress.

Back on the battlefield, the situation is getting tough for the forces of good, seeing as the Uruks are getting the upper hand, seeing as they are outnumbered two to one, they still manage to become very challenging. The men struggle to put them down, seeing as they are undead and also having their flesh made of armour, it becomes difficult for them to kill them, even beheading them is their last resort but was difficult for many of them. King Darrius and Vanessa continues to fight, having their armies remain on the battlefield, continue to fight against them until there is none left.

The battle lasts for half an hour, the fight finally came to their favour but it took the loss of one of the Mumakil's as it eventually fell in battle, crushing many Uruks. Both the armies gain the victory on the field, annihilated all the undead Uruks on the battlefield but it took the cost of heavy casualties on their side. Once their army is reform and reorganise back into formation, they prepare to launch an all-out assault upon this fortress. Lucky for them is that their Mumakil is about to become great battering ram, a perfect weapon to breach the walls.

The Uruks held their ground while the Mumakil attacks, they quickly let loose a barrage of arrows and launch the fireballs from their catapults, forcing Vanessa to jump out of the way, jumping off her Mumakil by grabbing the rope and sliding her way down. The Mumakil kept charging until it soon punches through the walls with its large tusks, punching through and sending a piece of the wall crumbling down to bits. Once the wall is breach, the Mumakil continues taking hits until it soon fell to the side, landing on top of the Uruks on the wall.

The army charges straight through the broken wall, swarming into the fortress and pushing the Uruks back, pushing them further into the fortress. King Darrius and Vanessa charges in together, teaming up on the fights inside, planning to go further within to find the man in charge. They move further within, bringing a few men who thought of joining them on finding the Tower.

Further within, they make it into the courtyard where a throne lies up ahead with nobody sitting on it. King Darius and Vanessa moves on through, having the men with them spreading out, surrounding the area. They look around, looking for where the Tower is but they could tell that there is something here, watching them in the cover of darkness.

King Darius approaches the stone throne, disappointed when realising that the Tower is not here. He lowers his sword and turns around, looking at Vanessa and the others. Vanessa turns to him then looks behind him, same goes to anyone else who looks at Darius, they all look behind him, looking at the throne. Once Darius realises there is something behind him, he slowly turns around, holding onto his sword in front of him with both hands to it, seeing the Tower himself, sitting there on the throne all the sudden.

"So it is you who has been causing such a fuss outside this fortress." The Tower said, echoing his voice through this place

"The fortress is ours." Darius replies "Your experiments ends here with you dead."

"Hardly so." The Tower rises up off his throne, taking out a lance that happens to be leaning along the right side of the throne. He moves it over his shoulder and looks back to Darius and says "You all have done well so far, I do hope to spare the lot of you so I could experiment on you lot instead."

Uruks suddenly sprung out into action and charges from all sides of the group, having everyone turn to the side, quickly defending themselves against the ambush of the Uruks. The Tower remains where he is and watches the skirmish in front of him, watching his Uruks clash against the humans, killing many of them quickly but Vanessa and Darius was holding on their own, taking down many of the Uruks. The Tower eventually intervenes, rising up off his throne and held onto his spear with one hand, walking towards Darius while he keeps fighting the Uruks in front of him. He attacks Darius by lunging the spear through the back of an Uruk, using him as a shield with a sharp spear in the centre, moving this Uruk towards Darius to impale him.

Darius saw this and moves out of the way, moving to the side and swings his sword at the Uruk, beheading him and sending his body to the ground when the Tower pulls the spear out of him. Darius swings forth at the Tower, hitting against the spear, locking their weapons together and then gaze upon one another while they stood their ground against each other.

"The Banshee Queen will kill you all." Said the Tower, warning Darius while staying his ground against him. He soon changes the tide when he moves his right hand, gripping Darius' neck, gripping him tight while speaking. "She will unleash the flames and the shadows upon all of you."

Darius leans backwards while the Tower continues gripping his hand against his neck, choking the life out of him, overwhelming him. He could not stay like this and so he fell back, falling to the ground and moving their weapons off one another. Darius quickly rolls to the side before the Tower could impale him again, sending his spear hitting the metal floor, he backs away while Darius rises up and attacks.

Vanessa strikes down the last Uruk and looks towards Darius still fighting against the Tower. She comes over to help but she quickly evades an arrow that is shot from another Uruk nearby, bending her upper body to the side to send the arrow past her chest. She looks back to the Uruk and threw one of her daggers at the Uruk, hitting him in the head. She looks back to the Tower and throws the other dagger towards him, throwing it when she sees an open, hitting the Tower on the right side of his thigh, making the dagger stuck right through his body.

The Tower groans slightly when taking that hit, getting Darius to strike as well, breaking his spear in half and hitting his chest. Darius almost punches him in the face, only to stop when the Tower grabs his fist on time. The Tower hits him across the face, sending him to the floor then drew out these two longswords from the back of his waist and looks to Vanessa when she comes into the fight, rushing towards him with two longswords of her own, clashing against him. She pushes him back while swinging faster than he is, soon to kick him to the chest and pushes him back. She soon gets the help from Darius and together they push him back, knocking one of his swords to the floor then sent him back on his throne.

The Tower smirks while Darius leans his sword against his neck, he looks at Darius and says "Mordor belongs to her, fighting is futile."

Without the two realising, the Tower was nowhere to be seen on that throne, catching them off guard as their eyes did not take eye contact off of him. Both lower their weapons and looks around, confused and surprise at first, did not expect the Tower could make an escape move on them without them even noticing it.

"Where did he go?" Said Darius, stepping away from the throne and looks around the room, seeing no sign of the Tower of anyone. He looks back to Vanessa and repeats himself "Where did he go?"

Vanessa sighs to herself while turning towards him "I don't know… He slithered away, that's what happen." She looks back to the door entrance then back to Darius "Come on, we still got a battle to do."


	5. Chapter 5

The fortress of Ered-Glamhoth now belongs to the forces of the east, pushing the Tower and his experiments out of here but King Darius and Vanessa do not plan on keeping this place. This fortress is just one of the campaigns into Mordor, attacking this fortress gives them an area where they could call for reinforcements.

What is left of their army remains outside the fortress, not want to camp inside due to the terror and the horrors that lies within this place. The forces of men wish to camp outside, taking a break for now before they make their move against the island of Nurnen.

Inside the fortress, King Darius stays inside the fortress, not showing any fear when returning to this desolate place. He moves around this place on his own, keeping his sword ready and making sure that everyone here is dead. While he moves through this place, he notices he is not alone here, realising Vanessa is here, moving through this fortress and meeting with Darius in the throne area.

Vanessa approaches Darius from behind while he looks at the throne, finally sheathing his sword and looks back to Vanessa. "You know, it's funny…" Vanessa said while looking up at the top of the towers then looks back to Darius "The men did not hesitate to storm this place and right after we win this place, they refuse to take refuge here."

"That's because they don't want to hear it." Said Darius "If you listen closely, you could definitely hear the souls of this place crying out in pain. They don't realise it until they find out later."

"Surprise you let them stay outside."

"Let them rest." Darius looks back at the throne "We are one step closer to reaching victory in the east of Mordor."

"Oh really?" Vanessa crosses her arms and asks "And how do you plan on taking Seregost to the Banshee Queen?"

"That….. I don't know…"

Vanessa sighs and lowers her arms then turns around and says "By the time we reach Seregost, we won't have an army to siege the front gates."

"We'll figure something out." Said Darius "But this campaign continues."

"I am surprise you would actually want to continue, to throw more men away in order to give me more territory." Vanessa asks "What's your game? Are you trying to increase this alliance?"

'I have a plan all figured out. I just hope you and I play our roles in the end and hope we can handle the reckoning."

"Hmn… Well aren't you something."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll find out later." Vanessa turns back and walks out of there, departing from this fortress while Darius remains there, watching her leave then he too decides to follow and depart as well.

While the forces of good laid a second victory against the forces of Mordor, other things are happening in the west. The Fellowship of the Ring makes their move across country, moving over the rocky terrain and through the grassy fields where the wind blows roughly through this area. They travel through together with no signs of any trouble, especially no trouble with the One Ring.

During their break, the Hobbits begin training in swordplay with Boromir, training them so that one day they will have to fight off against all sorts of things out there in the wild. They train while the rest discuss their plan on moving to Mordor, having some believing they are going the long route and want to change their course, one of them who is Gimli thinks they should go under the mountain. Once he mentions about going under the mountain, this worries Gandalf, knowing what exactly they would have to face if they go through that route.

While they wait, things change very quickly when Gandalf realises that the path they are taking are being watch by Saruman. His clever spies of crows came flying over the valley, watching this place well and now has his eyes upon the Fellowship. Because of this sudden change, they now realise that the path they are taken are now being watch by Saruman and is now force to take a new and different path but this path is far dangerous.

Gandalf takes the whole Fellowship over the mountain, moving through a rough snowy terrain, walking straight into a death trap as Saruman knows what exactly they are doing. He plans to bring down the whole mountain on top of them, crushing them with overwhelming force of the mountain. His plan only fails slightly as the Fellowship survives his first attack, seeing he is planning to bring down the whole mountain so now they must decide where to go from here, either continue moving or go under the mountain.

The Fellowship of the Ring must now leave the mountain and take the trip into somewhere far dangerous, in a place where the shadows and flame lies, hiding within the mountain. The Fellowship now takes this path, making their way towards the entrance into the old kingdom of Moria.

Elsewhere, Arthas takes his rangers into the dark fortress of Carn Dum, taking twenty men to the fortress and leaving twenty behind with Darion by their side, covering the rear. Arthas, Renault and Calia moves through inside the fortress, discovering that there is little resistance when approaching this place, seeing the fortress is not fully complete with thousands of orcs.

Arthas and the others move through towards the main gate, seeing no signs of any orcs or anymore along the walls, making things very complicated and suspicious right now as they have no idea if this is a trap or it is their lucky day. Since there's no guards around, Arthas and the others press on, having the group move slowly out of cover and straight to the gate. The team makes their move out of cover and makes their way towards the gate, standing along the side, they begin taking out grappling hooks and throwing three of them over the top of the wall. Calia and two men takes the ropes and climbs up the wall once the hooks are perfectly station where they are, allowing them to climb up the wall while the others remain below.

Renault begins to distrusts the situation here, speaking out to the others "I don't like this…" He said while looking left to right, looking out at the wilderness then to the gate in front of him "This is too easy."

"I know this looks like a trap but we all agreed to get in there anyway." Said Arthas, standing by his side and tapping on his shoulder and getting Renault to look at him "Were all in this together."

Very soon the lever is found by Calia and she pulls it, opening the gates wide and triggering serious noises from the gate as it creeks while it moves, seeing this place is really old and somehow it's still a fortress. Once the gate opens wide, the team moves through while Arthas stays back for a moment, raising his hand out into the wilderness, signalling the rest of the rangers to come out of the shadows. Darion and his men outside make their move to the gate, deciding to defend the front gate entrance while Arthas and the rest of the party moves within, moving into the fortress of Carn Dum.

Arthas whispers to Renault while they move through together, holding onto his sword with both hands. "This is when the real problems begins." Said Arthas while he walks forward.

The team moves directly through, moving inside this dark fortress where they would eventually come across a few orcs that are patrolling the area. The ranger's spot the orcs and shoots them all dead, using their bows to shoot arrows to end the fighting very quickly and quietly. The way things are going, it was as if this was a today version of modern combat of stealth, moving through places silently and shooting the guards with silencers.

During their move through, Calia asks "This looks easily…. But why declare war if there not even ready?"

"Perhaps the reason for attacking us is because they wanted to weaken us." Said Arthas "Perhaps hitting your enemies hard and quick, you might be able to slow them down, let them take a break and recover while you begin creating your army."

"That is true." Said Renault "And right now, they didn't expect we would actually attack them directly at the worst place."

Calia changes the subject when looking through the corridors and pathways that leads to anywhere inside this fortress. She looks to Arthas and Renault and says "This place is too big for us all to walk through one. We got to have to split up."

"That does sound like a good idea…" Said Renault "But we also have to be careful. They may not have enough sentries but they will eventually find out were here and when they do…"

"I know. We should just split our team in half." Said Arthas when looking to Calia and Renault "Calia and me will take a quarter of the men, the rest can be with you Renault."

"Alright. I hope you know what you are doing."

"You be careful in there." Said Arthas "I don't want to tell your father the bad news."

"Don't worry." Renault turns away and walks to the rangers while Arthas and Calia looks at one another then picks a pathway.

Renault takes a pathway to move and takes his rangers with him, the rest goes to Calia and Arthas while they move through somewhere else. While they move through, they will eventually encounter more resistance of orcs, catching them off guard and not setting off any alarms. This plan is slowly progressing but the more they go further within this fortress, the more they encounter orcs and they will not be able to kill them all very quickly in small places like this.

Renault and his men came across the courtyard, noticing the centre of it has two trolls and a handful of orcs. Once he and his men came out of cover by accident, they are force to come charging out and attacks the group of orcs, running straight at them and striking them down quickly. Some men follow him through the battle while the others surround them, taking aim and firing arrows at the trolls, targeting them first. The trolls became a top priority of this fight as they are tough and they can take down anyone so quickly, one even took out two of the men with just one slam of its hand, crushing them both.

Renault targets one of the trolls after knocking out a couple of orcs and looks at the troll in front of him, quickly avoiding the trolls attack by rolling to the side to avoid its slam of its hand. Once he stood tall, he moves along the side of the troll and attacks with his mace, doing little damage against the harden skin of a troll. He could only fight it but is unable to kill it, and so he uses himself as a diversion while his rangers get in position, taking aim and firing arrows at the heads of the trolls, bringing them down so they can be slain with a sharper weapon.

Elsewhere, Arthas and Calia encounters more resistance of orcs, forcing them to hold position where they fight against wave and wave of orcs, somehow encountering the massive force of them inside the fortress. Both Arthas and Calia held their ground and continues fighting, knocking down one Orc after another, eventually seeing just how bad it is, Arthas quickly acts.

"We split up for the moment to draw half of them away!" Said Arthas, shouting out to Calia "I'll draw them away while the rest of them find a better room to fight."

"But Arthas –"

"There's no time to discuss about this! Go."

"Damn it… You better be alive when I find you!" Shouts Calia while shield bashing an Orc in front of her.

Arthas runs through and strikes down three orcs but knocks down one of them, running through them and getting most of them to chase him away while the rest continues their push against Calia and the others. She and the men retreat back through the corridors, pushing back the orcs and finally getting into a room that fits their liking, getting what is left of the rangers through and drawing the orcs in here so they could have an even fight. Calia and only a few men by her side, stood at the ready with their swords forward and looking at their enemies for a few seconds until the orcs charge and clashes yet again.

Arthas continues to run away from the orcs, noticing several of them coming after him but he continues to run for the moment. Once he found a perfect area, which was the room he and everyone was searching for, he makes his stand and clashes against them.

A large open doorway that leads to the main changers of Agandaur, under the watch of two orcs. The two notices Arthas running towards them, making them become hostile and quickly aim their spears at him. Arthas notices them and clashes against them, striking their spears and eventually killing them, once dead, he quickly turns around and slowly moves backwards, watching the orcs running through the corridor and come charging towards him. He tries to face them all alone, striking down one by one and taking a few damage to his chainmail or armour but he continues fighting, striking down the orcs while he moves backwards. He continues fighting until the very last, striking the very last one and finally catching his breath.

After taking care of the orcs, Arthas moves out of the room but stops all the sudden, stopping where he is and slowly turns around, realising where he is, standing in the throne room. Arthas looks back and looks straight at the throne, having his eyes gazing upon what is on the throne arm, not realising where he is however as if something was controlling him for some reason. His eyes continues to gaze on that throne arm and when he begins moving closer to the throne, it reveals clearly that he is looking at a little ring that lies right there for the taking.

Arthas stood in front of the throne while continue having his eyes down at the ring, making him suffer from the power of the ring, the ring of power. His thirst for power just like everyone else became his undoing, causing his mind and will to fall apart when he finally places his fingers on the ring, picking it up and examining it closely.

Arthas soon change course to somewhere else in the room once he reverts back to himself, keeping the ring hidden for now and returns to his quest. He makes his way through a doorway on the left, entering what appears to be a war room, having a round table in the middle with many point object pieces over the board. Arthas examines it closely, looking at the map of Middle-Earth and the pieces on it.

There lies pieces of major forces in Middle-Earth, realising they are military positions where they are in Middle-Earth. The red pieces shows locations like Dol-Guldur, Gundabad, Carn-Dum, Isengard, Rhun and another red piece that is put in the north, this indicates the red is Sauron's forces. The three yellow pieces show the location of Lórien, Woodland Realm and Rivendell, showing they belong to the elves but it also shows two red pieces next to two of them where Lórien and Woodland Realm lies. The four grey pieces shows four locations that belongs to the dwarves, showing the Blue Mountains, the Iron Hills, Erebor and another location that is unknown on the map. The blue pieces that are smaller than the others shows all major locations that belongs to the forces of men, showing one piece that lies in Arnor, another piece in Rohan, another piece that lies in the east and a few more pieces that shows major places in Gondor. And finally the last piece that is purple that belongs to the Forsaken, having one piece in the centre of Mordor.

Arthas stares at the two red pieces next to the yellow ones, showing Sauron's plan on attack, seeing he plans to attack Lórien and the Woodland Realm soon. There was another piece that got him curious, looking at the one that lies in the north, confused at first as he believes there is nothing out there but that was something to look into.

Arthas soon hears a commotion happening outside the room, making him look away and drew his sword, forgetting about Calia and the others. He turns away and begins to take his leave from the room, making his way to the door and try to find Calia and the others. Just as he got closer however, sudden interruption happens when someone came through that door, getting Arthas to stop and look towards an Orc that stood before him. Both of them froze all the sudden but they quickly drew swords and attack, clashing against each other for a while until Arthas lays his sword through its chest and sends it to the floor, joining the others.

Calia still battles against the orcs with only four men left, having the rest died in battle while facing off against so many numbers. Calia knew she could not defeat them all and so she and her rangers retreat, running from battle and getting the orcs to chase after them. During the chase, one of the rangers fell to the floor and the orcs surround him, attacking him so many times with their weapons, making him cry out loud while Calia and the others watch while continue to run.

Renault and his men are already outside with Darion and his men, fighting off against the orcs that come out and attacks them, having the rangers shoot arrows through them before they could get any closer. They form a long line with all of them holding bows, shooting all orcs they see that comes out of the fortress. Once Darion saws Renault and his men coming, he and most of his men drew swords as he and the others are in the way, making them fight the rest of the orcs head on while the rest of the rangers moves around and shoots the orcs along the side.

Darion runs to Renault and asks quickly "Where is Arthas and the others?"

'I don't know." Said Renault "We split up." He then turns back and smacks this Orc across the face with his mace.

"Here comes Calia!" Shouts one of the rangers, pointing out at Calia who comes rushing into the skirmish.

Calia comes into the fight and joins the others on battling against the orcs, striking down the ones in front of her and reunites with Renault and Darion. Renault responds "Where is Arthas?"

"We got separated." Said Calia. She turns around to have her back to him as she looks back at the orcs in front of her.

"We hold this position!" Said Renault when shouting out "No matter what, we kill every last one of them!"

They continue to hold their ground against the orcs, facing off against more numbers of orcs, forcing them to move back when losing more of their warriors. They are force to wait and to keep fighting, to continue fighting off against the lot of them until finally they could see Arthas, seeing him on the walls, standing on the edge of it while fighting off against the orcs behind him. Once they saw him, both Calia and Darion make a run to the side of the wall, protecting Arthas while he jumps down through the rope of the grappling hook, landing right next to them.

Arthas got up and looks to Darion and asks "What have you been doing?"

"Waiting for an idiot!" Said Calia "What took you so long?"

"I'll explain later. We got to go, now!"

"Now were talking." Darion turns back and runs back to the others with Arthas and Calia behind him.

The group quickly retreats into the forest, running away and allowing the orcs to take control of the gate. What is left of the orcs did plan to go after them but somehow they hold their ground, not going after them for some reason. The orcs turn back and returns back inside the fortress, leaving them be.

As for Agandaur, he manage to watch the whole thing from where he was hiding, finally coming out of cover, standing along the side of the wall and looking out at where the rangers fled. Agandaur simply nods slowly, pleased at what he saw and what happen inside the fortress, expecting this would happen.

"You let him take it." Said someone near Agandaur, having him look to the side and sees a Nazgul in his black robes, covering its face. He came walking up to Agandaur and looks out at the view.

"You wanted someone to wield that ring." Said Agandaur "You got one."


	6. Chapter 6

Arthas and the company of the Dunedain Rangers took a break in the old ruins of Weathertop, setting up camp for tonight and learn what they discover inside the fortress of Carn Dum. Arthas, Darion, Calia and Renault was sitting together at the top of Weathertop, sitting together by the campfire while the rest of the Dunedain Rangers sits around other fires near them. During their rest, Arthas explains to his friends what he found and saw in the war room of Agandaur, telling them what Sauron plans to do in the War of the Ring.

"So that's his plan." Said Calia "He's going to attack the elven lands first to increase his grip into Mirkwood?"

"That's what I saw." Said Arthas "I saw two of his red pieces next to the location of the elves. I saw nothing about him attacking Arnor or Rivendell but I can tell he is planning for something big."

"So there's more to it then?" Asks Renault "He can't seriously believe he could take the elves on and attack Arnor. What about the other piece you saw in the north?"

"Yeah I saw that too." Arthas looks to Renault "Although… I have no idea what is in the north, it's just a frozen wasteland."

"A perfect place to fit an army, that's for sure."

"I heard stories about a tribe of men living in the north." Said Darion "Do you think there joining forces?"

"Or working against each other." Said Calia "Maybe that's the reason."

"I don't know." Arthas shakes his head "But what I do know is that we have to figure out what to do from here?"

"Well… We could make contact with the elves of Rivendell." Renault said, placing his right hand to his chin while his left hand under his right hand, leaning underneath his elbow. "They have to believe us of what is coming, they must know about it."

"And what about us?" Calia asks "Will we not fight too?"

"We have to defend our borders." Darion said "The orcs would surely attack again with much greater numbers."

"We might need some help on that." Said Renault "The dwarves from the Blue Mountains could help us out."

"If they would actually come." Mutters Darion

"Let's sleep on it first before we go off." Said Arthas "We've done all we can for today. Tomorrow, we get to work."

Everyone agrees and eventually everyone lays back and tries to get some rest but since most of the people still have more stamina, it took a while before they could actually relax and fall asleep.

Arthas begins to use this for his time alone to himself, waking up while everyone was asleep and went off alone to the edge of Weathertop. He stops at the edge and looks back, making sure that nobody is awake or watching him. He turns back and looks down at his hands, taking out the ring he stole in the fortress, gazing upon the ring for a while. He looks back at the others one more time before looking back at the ring, soon to take off his glove and actually puts on the ring, making him feel so relief when he puts it on but not realising what this ring could actually do to him in the future.

Arthas covers the ring up with his glove then turns around and returns to bed, keeping the ring on and not telling anyone about this ring. He plans to keep it hidden, pretending like nothing is happening but eventually the ring would take a hold of him. This is the beginning of how Arthas will eventually become the ninth Nazgul.

Meanwhile, far in the east in the territory of Gondor, near the Ithilien border lies Faramir and his hundreds of Ithilien Rangers, watching the roads in the middle of the night. He and his men stand watch over this place, spreading his men out, knowing the Forsaken would come straight through here. He remains vigilant, staying awake and keeping the borders of Gondor safe against the armies of Mordor, knowing they are coming for revenge after the loss of Minas Morgul.

During the cover of the night, his prediction came true as Faramir discovers lights in the far distance, seeing thousands of them, all torches lighting their path and giving away their position. This here causes Faramir to quickly get in position and make contact with the rest of his rangers who are spread out. He makes contact with the men he has and those who are far away he gives them messages through bird whistling, whistling through the night, contacting his rangers, and giving them a tune, which is a signal for invading orcs.

The massive army of both Uruks and orcs, under the banner of the Forsaken and under the command of one of the undead elves who serves the Banshee Queen. Anya was in the middle, riding with the rest of the pack of Caragor's and ordering her captains to take the lead on watching the front.

During the march through this dark field, not realising that there are hundreds of archers all over the place, all spreading out and waiting for the signal to attack, which was another bird whistle. Faramir uses a different tune of a bird whistle, contacting the others to engage the enemy. Other rangers uses the same bird whistle to contact others far away, getting everyone to hear the call to attack.

In the cover of the night, arrows rain down upon the armies of the Forsaken, catching them off guard. The Forsaken began looking around to find their enemies but they cannot find them, getting them out of ranks and spreading out but every second, hundreds of them fall to the ground. The Forsaken begins to struggle at this point, unable to see their enemy and those who try to defend themselves through shields did not make any difference, they get shot in the back. The archers of the Forsaken could not help as they just shoot at random places and got no success.

Anya rides forward with her Caragor, calling out her warriors to stay firm against them and try to get her forces back in line. She orders her warriors to charge forward while also throwing their torches outwards in the distance, trying to start a bushfire so they could show both sides. Many orcs have already left their torches on the floor near them, either they lay dead or they drop them to the floor and drew weapons. She then orders her forces to scatter, getting the pack of Caragor's loose into the wild to track down the rangers and kill them, slowing them down a bit while her armies spread across the field.

Faramir and the Ithilien Rangers hold their ground while continue raining arrows upon them, some quickly target the orcs that are getting closer and also the Caragor's but some manage to find them and devour them. The rangers try to target those that are getting closer but since the enemy has tens of thousands of troops, it becomes difficult for them to wipe them all out. Many are force to retreat back into the forest, noticing there is too many coming closer to them and the bushfire is slowly getting worse.

After half an hour went by, Faramir and his Ithilien Rangers are force to retreat after realising the enemy is almost over their positions, forcing them to move further back and remain in the shadows. The Forsaken continues their wide spread across the territory, finding more men and quickly killing them. One of the Olog-Hai captains with a flamethrower help let loose more fire, forcing the rangers to move further away and eventually causing them to retreat.

Anya rides out while aiming her bow in the air, shouting at the Forsaken, saying "Push forward my warriors, victory draws near!"

Faramir and his men by his side retreats further away, soon to make contact with some Uruks and a captain on a Caragor. This forces them to draws swords and defend themselves, fighting for their lives against the attackers, fighting this battle quickly before the rest of the army falls upon them.

Faramir targets the captain by drawing two arrows and fires at the Dire Caragor, hitting it in the head with the two arrows and killing it, forcing the captain to fall to the ground. Faramir drew his sword and charges, swinging his sword down at the captain to finish him but the captain responds on time, blocking his sword with his spear then pushes Faramir back.

The Uruk captain stands up and looks back at Faramir, speaking out to Faramir in this gibberish language, only because this captain is an undead. The captain continues speaking gibberish until finally throwing a spear at Faramir, only to miss when he blocks it with his sword.

Faramir charges and clashes against the captain a few times, gaining the upper hand and striking the captains body a few times but since this captain is an undead, he felt no damage to him. Faramir decides to go for decapitation by sliding his sword along the spear and removes the head, sending it flying while his body falls to the floor.

Faramir looks at the other Uruks nearby, striking down his rangers. He notices some of them have arrows stuck in their bodies, even stab wounds but they still keep fighting, only because they are just like that captain, an undead soldier that continues fighting until its head is remove. Faramir would have to deal with them personally, fighting to protect his rangers and targets their heads, sending their heads flying when he sees an opportunity to strike.

After clearing the Uruks around them, one of the rangers came up to Faramir and says "We can't hold them for much longer! We can't face them at close range."

Faramir keeps his back towards the ranger while hearing this, he was looking out at the view, seeing the Uruks spreading out and could see some signs of his rangers in the distance, fleeing from the enemy when they get close. Faramir looks back at the ranger and says "Signal the retreat. We make the move to Osgiliath. Now!"

Faramir runs past the man and moves off elsewhere with two men by his side. The man who was speaking to Faramir stands there, taking out the horn of Gondor and giving it a serious blow through, having the whole land to hear its call. This also brought the Uruks and Anya to turn their heads towards the one who is blowing that horn, getting Anya to shoot that man dead with an arrow to shut him up but the Ithilien Ranger's already heard it and knows what to do now.

The victory goes to the Forsaken on this field, getting the Ithilien Ranger's to retreat but at least they deliver serious damage on the enemy, killing more of them. Once the rangers fled for their lives, Anya and the Forsaken begins to reform their forces back in line, bringing them all together so they can continue their journey down to the south. Anya gives the rangers a head start, allowing them to flee to Osgiliath but once she is ready, she gives one of her captains the lead on the army while she decides to go out on a hunt with the pack of Caragor's, going after the rangers to hunt and kill them.

Elsewhere, in the lands of Mordor, the alliance of the east of Marwen and the forces of Harad make their move on attacking the island of Nurnen. This invasion on the island is a stealth and a tactical assault on the fortress, having three roles to play on this invasion on the land. The plan is to have Vanessa and her warriors organise hit-and-run tactics against the enemy, doing stealth and also sabotaging key objectives. Once they deal enough damage, the troops of Marwen and King Darius himself arrives, going on the assault against the Uruks and pushing them back into their fortress. The final stage is the siege on the fortress, attacking the fortress on two fronts, the first is an attack from ships they stole along the coast and attack from behind while also using siege weapons on the land and not use relentless assault on the walls. If this plan works well, the alliance takes Nurnen and the whole south eastern lands now belongs to them.

Vanessa and a handful of her warriors begin their trip to the island to begin the first phase of the plan, sailing a transport ship they stole from Uruks on the docks on the mainland, taking it to Nurnen. They sail straight into the harbor where they face many Uruks and orcs and a single captain that operates this area, a captain from the Marauder Tribe.

On the pier area where they land their ship, a few Uruks move up to the ship to inspect it but they did not expect to see humans waiting for them. Once they got closer, a few men came out of cover, carrying crossbows and fires, killing the lot of them. Once they lay there dead, Vanessa gets off the ship and moves on ahead while her men remove the bodies, dragging them onto the ship and staying watch until Vanessa tells them to move.

Vanessa moves on ahead, sneaking quietly with just her two daggers at the ready, stealth killing three Uruks and sending them into the water then moves on ahead quietly. She soon realises there is not many Uruks guarding the area and so she signals her men to get off the ship and move up to follow her, reaching to her location and waiting there while she moves on ahead.

Further ahead, behind the buildings lies a large group of Uruks and orcs, having a feast together with the captain who just got a promotion as a bodyguard to a Warchief in the fortress. He brought his warriors here, leaving most of the area unsecure and giving Vanessa this opportunity to sneak in easily and kill a few guards nearby. Vanessa manage to stealth kill four more Uruks nearby and took out two while getting on top of the building, getting a good look at the scene and checking the surroundings for anything she can use against them.

The Uruk captain stands in front of a barrel full of Grog, a captain from the Marauder Tribe, wearing heavy armour and shows golden outlines over the armour. He wields only an axe, holding it on his left hand while holding a cup full of Grog on the other hand, celebrating with his fellow Uruks near the campfire.

The captain raise his cup in the air when looking at his fellow Uruks, shouting out "Come on my brothers, fill your bodies with Grog and then drink some more! This is a good day today my brothers."

Vanessa smiles while watching the Uruk captain drink some Grog. She mutters to herself "This is a good day today for us." She looks at her men by her side, holding the crossbows. "Attack on my signal." She turns back and moves on the other side of the roof, moving back to signal the rest of the men to get into positions.

The Uruks continues to celebrate, not realising that their guards are dead and a small group of thirty Haradrim warriors get closer towards them. Two ground teams are to move around the building and wait for the signal, waiting for Vanessa and her four archers with her on the roof to light up the signal.

Vanessa signals her archers to fire, targeting the barrels of Grog near them, blowing up all four of them and wiping out eighteen orca and Uruks that stood around them. Once revealing themselves, Vanessa comes down from the roof and lunges her two daggers through two of the Uruks from below, stabbing them through the back and killing them. She pulls her blades out and looks at her enemies around her, shouting out loud "Kill them all!"

Vanessa charges in and swings her daggers rapidly while moving around, evading their attacks and taking out a few grunts. The Uruks and orcs try to defend themselves, soon to get caught by two attacks from two sides from the Haradrim, charging straight through and clashing against them here.

The captain drops his cup of Grog and shouts out at Vanessa "You wrench! You ruined everything. I brought all of my brothers here and you go ahead and kill the lot of them… I am going to take my time with you, once I get my hands on you!"

Vanessa sighs disgustedly and continues attacking the ones in front of her, fighting off two orcs with just her daggers. The captain tries to reach her but with the Haradrim charging through their lines, he is force to fight the ones in front of him, making things slow for him to reach Vanessa. This gets the captain to go on a rampage, he swings his axe around, killing four men already while moving slowly to Vanessa. The archers on the wall try to shoot him in the chest, only to have their arrows bounce off of him because of his arrow-proof armour he wears. Since they cannot harm him, they go and give Vanessa some support, shooting at the orcs near her and giving her a path through.

Vanessa turns her attention back to the captain once she sees a path to run straight at him. She charges through the fighting, running straight at the captain but at halfway, the captain notices her and attacks. The captain swings his axe at her but she evades by going on her knees, sliding past the captain and sending one of her daggers through the right knee of the captain, injuring him badly. She gets back up and sends her dagger through the back, giving him more pain but this captain tries to fight back. The captain turns back at her to swing his axe, only to graze her belly as she jumps back just on time, still holding onto one dagger.

Vanessa smiles while keeping her distance from the captain "I guess I'm going to take my time with you."

The captain gets furious, trying to swing his axe at her but was unable to reach her. The captain looks down at his knee with the dagger still inside of him, getting him to pull the dagger out. Vanessa attacks while he was focusing on the dagger, kneeing the captain in the face and sending him to the ground, quickly using her dagger to send it through the face, killing the captain instantly.

The captain dies and only two Uruks manage to escape during the fight, the rest of them lays dead around the victors. The group comes together and try to help several men who are hurt from the battle, only eight men died in this fight.

Vanessa speaks out "Leave the dead. There is no time to bury them right now." She looks out at the pathway where the two Uruks went, aiming her dagger out there and says "Those two fled that way, which means they will be calling for backup soon." She looks back to the others "We got to go."

While Vanessa and her warriors make their retreat for now, eventually half the island finds out that there are people coming. Word gets out inside the fortress that they lost a bodyguard, causing one Warchief to get upset about this while the others did not care much about the loss. As for the Overlord who happens to be the Tower himself, sitting on his throne and having a smile on his face. He took over the fortress after he lost his previous one, now here, monitoring the situation and expects his enemies would try something like this, since he now knows they are here, he knows what to do from here now.


	7. Chapter 7

The gates of Osgiliath opens, having men quickly rushing inside the city, breathing so heavily as they have been running for a long time, running through the night because if they stop then the Caragor's would devour them all. Faramir and a hundred men made it back while the rest died, unable to reach their destination on time.

The soldiers came off their walls and came to the rangers to help them, offering them drinks or food, anything they need to relax and calm down. Most of the men accepts the drinks and drank half of the bottles, making them so anxious to drink water due to the long run from the enemy.

Lord Varian Wrynn arrives at the scene with a couple of men walking alongside him, he walks straight to Faramir who was still drinking. When Faramir looks to him, Varian asks "What happen out there?"

Faramir swallows and tries to respond, having his mouth slightly open but he could not speak due to the loss of breath. He eventually spoke and said "It's the enemy… There coming for Osgiliath… We couldn't hold them."

Varian looks behind him and looks at his men, seeing so many but only a few return. He looks back to the side at the men who stood near him, issuing them an order "Help them out." He looks at Faramir and walks closer, placing his hand on his shoulder "You need to tell me everything…"

Faramir walks with Varian away from the gate and discuss what Faramir saw out there when he was fighting the Forsaken, warning Varian of what is coming this way to Osgiliath. The Forsaken is coming to Osgiliath and it is up to Varian and the forces of Gondor to protect Gondor against the upcoming threat.

Twenty minutes later, Varian finally gives the call for an immediate defence in Osgiliath, ordering all Gondorian soldiers to prepare for battle and to defend this city no matter what. The soldiers began piling over the walls and barricading the gates to increase the time it will take for the Forsaken to breach through. The Ithilien Ranger's made their move towards higher ground like the towers and rooftops and on the walls, finding perfect areas to rain down arrows upon the enemy when they come through.

At the back of Osgiliath, Faramir came to Varian to see what he was doing at the back, seeing him speaking to a few Gondorian riders at the back of the gate. The men by the gate opens it up while Varian speaks to the riders, ordering them to head out of Osgiliath and make their way to Minas Tirith, warning them of what is coming. The men accept this and so they took off, riding through the darkness with nothing but torches leading their way.

Faramir approaches Varian, speaking out to him "What are you doing?"

Varian turns to him and responds "Gondor needs to be warned about this." He turns his head back, watching the gate behind him closes "Were going to need all the help we can get from Gondor."

"What we need is a miracle right now."

"I know." Varian looks back to Faramir and walks closer to him to place his hand over his shoulder "But we will face this enemy and reign victorious as we always were. Nothing can bring Gondor to its knees."

This conversation ends when a Gondorian Captain approaches Varian and Faramir, getting the two to look back towards him. The captain breathes a little heavy due to the long run with heavy armour over his body, trying to speak up but was trying to catch his breath.

"Sir… We have contact in the north."

"So it begins." Varian mutters those words to himself. He looks back to Varian and says "Get in your position. Were at war."

Varian and Faramir returns to their positions, getting ready for the all-out assault from the Forsaken. Just when the sun slowly rises over the mountains in the east, they got a good look at the massive force arriving from the northern side of Osgiliath. They spot the large army coming together, showing its massive force to Gondor.

The trolls began beating their war drums for war as they come close to the city, beating the drums hard for the forces of Gondor to hear. The army of Forsaken draws closer, walking together in a large formation, all together with Anya leading the march at the front.

Varian makes his way to the walls, standing alongside his men and looks out at the view. He stands there with his mouth slightly open, surprised when seeing just how big this army was. He finally closes his mouth and takes a breather through his nose then exhales.

"There's so many of them." Said one of the soldiers who stands next to Varian

"There is no end to them…" Said another

"Hold your ground men!" Shouts out Varian's voice. He walks across the walls behind the soldiers while he talks "They may have numbers, but we still have the advantage here! Don't lose faith, we can still beat them here and now."

The Forsaken army gets into formation with Anya leading the middle. She places the siege beasts like the Graug in the middle then moves the cavalry and Uruks with the shields at the front, leaving the rest of them like the berserkers and the hunters at the back. Once her army is in place, the horns go off and the beating drums finally stops, a signal for the Forsaken army to finally launch an all-out assault against the city of Osgiliath.

The siege begins and the forces of Gondor prepare for battle. Varian and Faramir gives the signal to their archers to let their arrows fly across the valley, raining hundreds of arrows down upon the Uruks. The arrows fell upon many Uruks, many fell to the ground while the rest continue charging, but thanks to the Uruks with their shields at the front, not many of them fell.

Both sides launch their siege weapons against one another, having the Graug to fire off poisonous projectiles across the wall while Gondor launches huge rocks from their trebuchets. Both sides deliver great success against one another, but the forces of Gondor have sustain serious damage. The poisonous attacks over the walls sent men to their knees, vomiting over the streets and bleeding their eyes when falling victim to this plague. Many of the men are force to abandon the gate, retreating further within to avoid the poisonous attacks from their siege weapons. As for the Forsaken outside, they have sustain some damage from the trebuchets, sending those large rocks rolling over the Uruks and Olog-Hai.

Back on the walls, Varian remains on the walls and trying to support his men to keep fighting. He soon stops his chanting when looking down at the gate, seeing the poison gas spreading around the area near the gate, having his men retreating back. Things also began to get serious for Varian as the Uruks begin placing ladders over the walls, beginning to climb up on the walls to fight the defenders. Varian and his men prepare for this, drawing their swords and begin clashing against the Uruks, trying to knock them off the wall and stopping them from gaining a foothold.

Elsewhere, Anya remains on the field on her Caragor, watching the battle near her siege weapons as they begin changing their ordinance from poison to fire. They launch their fireballs over the walls, burning the buildings and getting a few lucky shots against the archers that are standing on the roofs. Anya begins to let loose her cavalry of Caragor, letting them loose upon the walls to help the infantry out by climbing up the walls quickly. They went up and began knocking the soldiers off the walls, bringing fear to the forces of men.

One of the Uruk captains rides towards Anya to hear her command. Anya responds to him while still watching the gate, saying "Bring the Olog-Hai to the gate. Spare no one."

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Said the captain, getting a smile on his face when turning away and riding out to the front lines. This captain calls forth his troops to his side, bringing the Olog-Hai to the gate and begin using their heavy weapons on the front gate.

The forces of Gondor hold off against the attackers for a little while, holding the walls for twelve minutes, fighting off against the Caragor's and the Uruks. Varian held off well when fighting against the enemy on the wall, striking down so many with his blade and sending them falling off the wall. Once Varian notices that his troops cannot hold for much longer, he decides to call for a retreat, calling what is left of his troops to withdraw from the walls.

"Fall back!" Cries out Varian while striking down two Uruks in front of him. "Fall back to the second post!"

The Gondorian troops withdraw from the walls, allowing the Forsaken to claim the front of Osgiliath. Varian orders the retreat on the worse time as the front gate finally breaks open, releasing the horde of the Forsaken through. The archers on the buildings, including Faramir himself assist on the retreat by raining arrows down at the infantry when they come through the gate, killing as many as they can but there was too many. The Uruks continue to advance and ignore their losses, spreading within this city like a flood, knocking down anyone that stood in their way.

Anya came into the fray by riding up the wall with her Caragor, standing on top of the wall and looking out at the damage her forces are delivering. Anya begins to join in the fight by targeting the Ithilien Ranger's on the buildings, shooting them down one by one, sending them falling off the buildings and onto the floor.

Faramir was still standing on the roof with four other Ithilien Ranger's by his side, soon to notice that Anya was shooting down several of his men. As she keeps shooting, she soon turns to Faramir and together they both draw an arrow and fires them both towards one another. Both arrows manage to collide, which forces them to quick draw to fire a second time. However, the moment they were about to fire, a fireball from one of the siege beasts came in between the two and hits one of the buildings, blinding them for a few seconds. Faramir uses this an opportunity to retreat with the others, moving off the roof and onto the ground. He drew his sword and began to fight off with the Uruks nearby.

The Forsaken charges straight through, overrunning the walls and the front gate, forcing the Gondorian troops to retreat further within their city. Many soldiers held off against the enemy, trying so hard to help the others retreat, and with Varian and Faramir standing together, fighting off against the enemy, they give their allies time to retreat.

Things become difficult as they are sent back when noticing the siege beasts getting closer towards them, getting on top of buildings and using them as a staging ground so they could see where to attack first. One of the beasts turns towards Faramir and Varian who happen to be on a bridge, ready to send a fireball to destroy the bridge and anyone on it. Only Faramir saw the beast in the distance, getting him to stop fighting and tries to shout out to Varian who was in front of him and still fighting.

Faramir grabs Varian's shoulder and pulls him back after pulling his blade out of an Uruk. Varian looks back at Faramir, confused at first, but Faramir explains by pointing towards the siege beast in the distance. He shouts out to him "We got to get off the bridge!"

"It's too late!"

The siege beast sends forth a fireball down upon them, and with no time to act, they quickly plan for the only thing they can do right now and that is to jump off the bridge. Both Varian and Faramir and some Gondorian soldiers went off the bridge, jumping off from the sides and crashing into the water. Just as they hit the water, the fireball made a direct hit on the bridge, sending it crumbling to pieces, killing several men and twelve Uruks in the process while injuring two men who fell into the water as they got hit by the debris from the bridge.

Both Varian and Faramir made it to the other side, both trying to swim their way back and got help from fellow comrades who help bring them out of the water. After getting them out of the water, a sudden horn from Mordor goes off from an Orc, signalling the Forsaken army to hold their attack.

"What is that?" Asks one of the fellow soldiers while helping two men pull Varian out of the water.

Varian stood up and turns around to face the other side of the city, seeing the Forsaken army standing on the other side of the river crossing. The mass army of Uruks and orcs, stood along the edge, looking back at the forces of Gondor, showing their force and there full control over the eastern side of Osgiliath, splitting the city into two and giving one piece to the Forsaken.

As they stand their ground thanks to the horn that went off a while ago, Anya came out of hiding and shows herself. She came sitting on her Caragor, standing alongside her captains and looking back towards the Gondorian troops on the other side. Her eyes soon turn towards Varian when seeing him in the distance, seeing him and Faramir, looking back at her in this awkward silent stare.

Meanwhile, back inside Mordor, the horns of war is still waging on between the alliance from Marwen and Harad are still pushing back the Uruks in Nurnen. The armies clash in another serious conflict, driving the forces of Uruks back inside their fortress and prepare for a huge siege that is about to begin.

Inside the fortress, Vanessa Cromwell still remains here as the last person standing to help fight off against the Uruks. She remains alone on the island after losing her warriors in battle, losing them to an Uruk captain who caught the scent of them and let loose his wild Caragor's after them. Vanessa manage to kill the captain, however, she lost her warriors and was now alone to fend off against the Forsaken from all sides. She now continues this quest alone and to keep moving and delivering some damage against the Uruks, trying to deal damage to the armies of Nurnen by targeting the captains from outside the fortress.

After slaying two Uruk captains, she made her infiltration into the fortress of Nurnen, entering the place quietly through the night, killing a few sentries on the walls then moves further within. During that time, the forces of men from Marwen and Harad came to the western shores by boat, deploying troops along the coast and begin moving forward with King Darrius taking the lead. He and his forces move up the beach and advance towards the fortress, using siege towers they stole from the Uruks on the mainland to help attack the fortress, all they have to do is put it all together. Once they get in position, the ships can go along the side and attack.

Inside the fortress of Nurnen, Vanessa moves quietly over the buildings, killing three archers on the roof then made contact with three captains, walking around the area with a handful of Uruks by their side. There was no chance for Vanessa to take them down with so many Uruks patrolling the area, assassinating a single captain on the ground would be difficult and would be harder if they could counteract against her stealth kill. And so Vanessa moves away for the time being, deciding to stay in the second level of the fortress so she could deliver serious damage from within when the battle starts. The only thing she has to do now is wait until the time is ready for her to reveal herself to the enemy, to surprise them and attack while they are busy dealing with the enemy outside and not inside.

While Vanessa thinks that she has the upper hand here, the Tower knows all about this and is waiting for her. He came walking to the ledge of his fortress, looking out at the distance outside of his fortress, seeing the light of the sun shining over the valley, seeing the view of an army forming together. All are in there positions, preparing for an all-out assault to determine the fate of Nurnen and the fate of the Tower, Vanessa and Darrius to see who shall reign victorious over this island.

Inside the Mines of Moria, the Fellowship of the Ring continues the journey through this dark and scary mines, filled with orcs and goblins and cave trolls. The Fellowship are halfway through without triggering the creatures from within to hear they have visitors, keeping everything quietly and calm and staying together near Gandalf as he is the only one who holds the light.

During their travel through, they come across the most amazing discovery they would ever see before in their life. The Fellowship gazes upon full marvel of the dwarves, seeing hundreds of these large pillars that can spread from miles away.

During this discovery, Gimli came across something during their walk through these halls, discovering the Tomb of Balin. He was dead a long time ago and Gimli did not know about it until now, finding his tomb and all of his fallen dwarves all around him in this room. As he mourns in pain, Gandalf finds the lost ledger of Balin, finding out what happen down here and how he died.

"They have taken the bridge and the second hall." Said Gandalf as he reads the book out loud for them all to hear the last words of Balin "We have barred the gates… But cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums… Drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming."

After finishing reading, things become very bad when a certain Hobbit causes a scene when creating a serious noise. A Hobbit brings forth the drums of war in the deep, waking all that hides within the shadows, waking them all up and bringing them all to the Tomb of Balin.

The Fellowship arm themselves for battle thanks to the stupidity of a single Hobbit, bringing a small force of goblins and orcs straight through the halls and into the Tomb of Balin. What makes things worse is that the goblins bring a cave troll with them, a perfect beast to use against the Fellowship. The goblins make it to the gate and broke it down, swarming straight inside the tomb and starting an all-out fight between the forces of good and evil.

The battle wages between both sides and the Fellowship held on against the goblins and orcs, wiping the lot of them out and leaving the cave troll to be the last opponent to slain. After wiping out the grunts, they all target the troll, attacking on all sides to confuse the beast until finally bringing the beast down with an arrow through the mouth. The beast was no more and fell in front of the Fellowship, ending the firefight inside the Tomb of Balin and leaving more bodies around the broken tomb.

After everyone was all alright and safe, the journey out of the Mines of Moria returns to them and they quickly make haste out of the Tomb of Balin and back outside. All of them ran as fast as they can together, running from the massive onslaught of the dark forces of Moria. They could see thousands of them chasing after them, chasing after them from all sides, including coming down from the ceiling and down the pillars. The Fellowship was getting close of being caught by the enemy, trapped within the circle of light while the goblin army surrounds them, so eager to carve them up and devour their flesh, it was so close that they could just taste it.

As things began to look bad for the Fellowship, things began to get worse when something evil far worse than anything here began to arise from its slumber. A terrible growl suddenly appears and interrupts this moment for both sides, bringing a terrible fear to the goblins. All of them are force to spare the Fellowship and fled in fear of the beast that lurks within, fleeing with their lives, and back into the shadows of Moria.

The Fellowship was safe for the time being, but they now face off against a terrible beast that once became a very powerful enemy during the First Age. This was a legendary Balrog of Morgoth, an ancient demon from an ancient world. This beast is far powerful than the Fellowship, but the only one who could stand against this demon is Gandalf himself.

The Fellowship make haste again through the darkness to flee from the Balrog, making their trip down the stairs and onto the small narrow bridge that takes them outside of Moria. Once they made it there, the demon reveals itself to the Fellowship, coming forth as shadows and flames, bringing fear to the Fellowship while they continue running to the exit.

Gandalf shouts for the others to run or else the Balrog will kill all of them. They make it to the narrow bridge and run in a single file, moving across the bridge and making their way upstairs and make it to the exit. Just as they reach the other side, Gandalf heroically stays behind to fend off against the Balrog on the middle of the bridge. He stood his ground and faces the Balrog, warning this demon not to pass, but the demon does not take the warning and takes its step onto the bridge.

Gandalf warns the Balrog one more time by shouting out another famous word, saying "You shall not pass!" He then hits the bridge and sends the bridge breaking in half, sending one half intact while the other half sent the Balrog falling into the abyss from where it came from.

As the Balrog fell into the abyss, it brought Gandalf down into the abyss with it, sending him down to join the Balrog and bringing certain despair to the Fellowship of the Ring, especially to Frodo. He and the rest of the Fellowship began to mourn in grief when they make it to the outside, out of the darkness and into the bright light of the sun. Most of them fell on their knees, feeling the loss of a fallen friend to the enemy, giving the Fellowship the first stab in the chest as they are down to one member and he was the strongest.

Aragorn takes over from here on, bringing the Fellowship back on their feet and make haste out of the field and into the forest nearby. The group ran straight into the forest, entering the forests of Lórien, one of the lands belonging to the elves. In this forest, they will come across the most powerful elven lady there is in Middle-Earth, an elf who will guide them towards hope for the Fellowship and to the one who wields the One Ring.


	8. Chapter 8

In the lands of Arnor, things are not going well as orcs began roaming across the north, pillaging villages and anything they find. The orcs in Carn Dum is growing and Agandaur is preparing for an all-out assault against the forces of men, elves and dwarves in this land. With this land broken up, divided and weak, this has given Agandaur the opportunity to strike through Arnor and reclaim the Kingdom of Angmar.

Glorfindel from Rivendell rides out into Arnor with a small cavalry of thirty elves by his side, here to offer assistance against the return of Angmar. He takes his journey to Fornost, the old ruins of Arnor and where he will find the resistance force being made here. He finds this place fit with many Dunedain Rangers and villagers who have lost something to the orcs, here to help protect their family and everything they own against the orcs. They have all come to fight and to stop Agandaur from achieving his goal.

Inside, Alexandros and his two sons Renault and Darion help train the new recruits, teaching them through sword play and then test their skills out against professional sword users. During the training, Alexandros notices his recruits stopping when seeing the elf lord Glorfindel coming through alone. The recruits and everyone else who saw Glorfindel stops at what they are doing and looks towards him, surprised to see an elf like him in a place like this.

Alexandros looks back to the recruits "Take five minutes." He turns towards Glorfindel and approaches him "Shouldn't you elves be protecting your lands?"

"Not all of us believes we can win by ourselves." Glorfindel said "There was a time where elves and men fought together to face the evil, and I intend to do the same thing. I am here to help Arnor win this war."

"Well…" Alexandros looks behind him, seeing the platoon of thirty elves entering the ruins with their horses following them from behind. He looks back to Glorfindel and lend his hand out to him "We really do need some help here."

Glorfindel looks at his hand and lend his hand out too, shaking his hand and says "Lord Elrond offers his support in this fight against Agandaur. You are not alone in this fight."

"Let's hope so." Alexandros said. He turns back and looks at the rest of the people who are standing around, still looking back at the elves. Alexandros shouts out to them "Did I ask you all to stop? Get back to work!"

Everyone stops staring and went back to what they were doing before, returning to their duties. Alexandros looks to Glorfindel and asks him to follow him to the war room, the room that once use to be the throne room. Glorfindel accepts and follows, bringing his elves to follow once they find a place to leave there horses.

Alexandros looks back to Glorfindel and asks "What is happening out there in the east anyway? Do you know?"

"Things are looking difficult in the elven lands of Mirkwood." Glorfindel responds "Sauron's forces is increasing, he's trying to hold indefinitely in those lands."

"What about Mordor?' Alexandros asks

"I have no idea what is happening inside Mordor, but I can tell that something is brewing in those lands, something far evil is coming to Middle-Earth." Glorfindel looks to the right at the group of rangers that come walking past them. He looks back to Alexandros and asks "How many do you have?"

"Couple of hundreds… We'll be lucky if we reach a thousand, but I doubt that won't work against the orcs."

"Your right. You are outnumbered, Alexandros. You need more men."

Alexandros stops and looks back to Glorfindel "There aren't that many left… Like I said before, we'll be lucky if we reach a thousand men, but even if we do train them to be ready, it's not enough. Is there anything you can do with the elves?"

"From what I heard, I can scramble up to a hundred or two hundred cavalry of elves from Rivendell and maybe a couple of four hundred infantry from Haven. Surely we elves are the only race in Middle-Earth who could help drive back the enemy."

"There is…" Alexandros turns back and starts walking, getting Glorfindel and the others to follow while they listen "There are the dwarves from the Blue Mountains. I already sent some people to try and ask for their help, not sure how long it will take for them to come."

"It appears you have your work cut out for you."

"You have no idea…"

Elsewhere, in the valleys of the west of Arnor lies the Blue Mountains, populated with thousands of dwarves who have hidden themselves from the surface. They remain underground, cowering themselves through riches they discover from everytime they dig deeper into the heart of the mountain.

The Dunedain Rangers arrive at the front entrance into the underground city of the dwarves, but they remain outside while it was dark, taking a break and setting up camp and wait for the morning to come. Calia sits together with several other rangers, sitting around by the fire and eating whatever food they have in their bags.

Calia remains sitting by the rangers, but she starts to worry about Arthas as he sits alone from the others. She sometimes looks back to Arthas then to the others, worried about him because he has not said anything to them after what happen inside Carn Dum.

Arthas remains standing near the trees, standing there for hours as if he was hypnotise. He remains looking out at the dark view, looking straight towards the location where Carn Dum lies. Arthas finally fell out of this hypnosis and back into reality. He turns around and walks back to the others, but not to sit down, however, he goes towards one of the horses.

Calia looks up at Arthas "What is it?' She asks while Arthas walks past her.

"I need to borrow a horse." Arthas said while walking up to one of the horses and taking the reins off the tree.

Calia gets off the floor and so does everyone else. She speaks out "You're leaving?"

"There's no point having us both here for this summons." Arthas said while preparing his horse and keeping his back towards Calia "I have somewhere else I need to be right now." Arthas looks back to Calia "I wouldn't do this unless I have to."

"But you can't leave…"

Arthas places his right hand to her shoulder and smiles slightly "I'll come back, and when I do, I'll fight in the Great War that is to come in Arnor."

Calia sighs "Just… Please return, we really need you."

"I will. I promise." Arthas turns back mounts onto his horse and rides out of there, riding into the darkness with just a torch on his left hand and keeping a hold to the reins with his right hand.

Calia looks back to the others as they look back at her, she responds "He'll be alright." She looks back out and could still see Arthas moving further away from them.

Very soon, after losing one of theirs, they soon get four more people into this group as four dwarves came out of the darkness, revealing themselves to the rangers and causing a frighten surprise to the rangers as they were caught off guard. They all turn towards the dwarves and grabs the handles of their weapons, arming themselves for battle, but they realise it was just friendly faces of the dwarves.

One of the dwarves steps forward and says "The empress of the Blue Mountains is ready for you. She has allowed you folk into her city."

Calia sighs and looks to the other rangers "Stand down." She steps forward to the dwarves and said "Were ready to meet with the empress."

Calia and her rangers follows the dwarves to the front entrance into the Blue Mountains. The large door in front of them opens up and moves inside the mountain, there they see for the first time, an amazing city under the mountain. This city is not as large as the Mines of Moria or as big as Erebor, just a settlement for ten thousand dwarves who have manage to survive Erebor and also against the war against the orcs in Moria. After those terrible events, the dwarves of the Blue Mountains remain inside, locked away from the surface and focus on mining beautiful gemstones and minerals that could fill their greed.

While Calia and her rangers enter the city, Arthas rides out to the north, riding straight through the Shire and around Fornost. He focuses on the enemy, riding to the north and going straight into the heart of the enemy lines. However, he plans not to travel to Carn Dum, instead, he travels far into the north, past Arnor and into the lands of the far north, the lands that was once known as the frozen lands of Northrend.

Inside the Blue Mountains, Calia and her men made it to the inner chambers to confront the ruler of the Blue Mountains. She meets with Moira Thaurissan, ruler of the Blue Mountains and the first female to be known as a ruler. She owns the Blue Mountains while the other two council members like her claim the Iron Hills and Erebor. She once sent an expedition into Moria to claim them, to dominate two kingdoms, which she actually succeeds on claiming Moria from the goblins for a time, but the goblins came back and slain all the dwarves, bringing it back to their control.

Meanwhile, in the lands of Northrend, populated with below twenty thousand men who call themselves the Vrykul and also consume with tens of thousands of orcs. These frozen lands have been in terrible wars over the course of the ages, the lands where the human tribes of Vrykul stands against the armies of orcs. Long ago, during the Angmar War, the Witch King once sent an army to claim those lands so he could harness the lands for resources and use them to help withstand against the forces of Arnor for hundreds of years. Thanks to these lands, the Witch King held on for hundreds of years against Arnor, using the resources, the creatures and also the Vrykul as slaves to work for the enemy's war machine so they could continue on. Eventually, Angmar fell when Gondor came, wiping out the Kingdom of Angmar, ending the war, but Arnor still fell and brought the rise of a new kingdom in the north for the Vrykul.

Today, these lands still wages on between the orcs from Agandaur and against the men of Vrykul, fighting on the moment Carn Dum came back into operations. This time, the orcs and Uruks have been struggling to maintain their ground in the Northrend, they only took a small portion of the land in the south west while the Vrykul own the entire eastern part of Northrend. However, in the lands of the far north lies ruins of old, ruins that once either belong to the first human civilisation or the old fortresses that once belong to the First Dark Lord. Rumour has it that there lies a dragon in the far north of Northrend, a dragon that could be the last of his kind.

Arthas rides out into those lands, force to leave his horse behind as the pathway he took was not going to work while riding on a horse. He let the horse go and continues, moving through the passage and into the frozen wastelands, feeling the cold like he has never felt before. He rugs himself up, holding on tight as it will be a while until he finds something that could keep him warm.

Arthas begins his long and slow journey through the snow, moving through the snow with his arms cross and his head slightly down due to the strong wind. During his walk, the power of the ring he wields began to change all the sudden, activating during his walk through the snow and at long last, the ring finally reveals to Arthas the power he desires. The ring glows in a greenish colour under his glove, Arthas would notice it when he stops and looks at his glove and noticing the glow. The moment he moves his other hand over his hand, touching the ring, he suddenly began to see flashbacks, flashbacks of the ones who once wield this ring and what they did with it.

The first flashback was seen when Isildur first wore the ring, seeing him in his armour and white wraith form, wielding the ring in his hand. Arthas could see Isildur calling forth the spirits of the dead, calling upon an army of Gondorian Soldiers, walking beside him and using them as pawns to attack a human and a female elf that he does not know of. The next flashback sent him forward through time, to a time where he could see that man again who was Talion, using the ring in all sorts of wars like bringing of soldiers of Gondor by his side, raising the dead of fallen Uruks and using the ring to dominate captains or lower ranking Uruks. The ring was finally giving Arthas what he desires and that is power, power to dominate. However, since he has been holding the ring all this time, it will not be long until the change begins over Arthas, the change of whether or not he will use the ring against the enemy or join them and help them achieve their task.

Arthas eventually reaches to a place where the land is in an autumn state, reaching to one of the region lands in Northrend known as the Borean Tundra, once home to the Vrykul during the ages of the Angmar War, but this whole land belongs to the orcs. There was once a keep that the Vrykul once own, it was the first place to welcome travellers from Arnor who comes to Northrend, but the Angmar War sent this place to ruins and this fortress known as Valiance Keep now belongs to the orcs.

Arthas takes a dangerous course to Valiance Keep itself, walking by himself across the bridge and moving into this old desolate place that is now been remade into the design of the orcs. The orcs at the front gate spots Arthas approaching them, leaving this problem to the Uruk captain who walks past them and stands in front of them.

"Look what we have here boys!" The captain shouts out "A stray pup that is lost from the rest of its pack. I was beginning to get bored torturing these slaves. Now I can gut you and torture them at the same time!"

"That won't be necessary." Arthas said while walking closer to them with just one hand to his sword and showing no fear to the orcs ahead of him "You all will soon be lying dead at my feet."

"Hah! You and what army?"

Arthas smiles slightly when hearing that from one of the orcs, he responds to them by spreading out his hands while he keeps walking, suddenly doing the same thing Talion did when he first wore this ring. He brought an army by his side, an army of green spiritual soldiers, all who have died here during the siege. Behind Arthas was a force of Vrykul soldiers, here to have a second chance in life to help purge the orcs that are desecrating their lands with their wars. Arthas had long last activates one of the abilities of the ring, which forces Arthas to change his appearance, suddenly turning his armour into a darker type and his skin go pale with dark marks over his face and corrupting his body.

The orcs and the captain was shock to see what lays before them, seeing an army of the dead, walking together with Arthas along the bridge. They all began to cower in fear, never in their life have they ever seen something as fearful as they are. Once they got closer, Arthas lowers his arms and the Vrykul behind him starts charging towards them, launching the attack to take back Valiance Keep from the enemy. The orcs could do nothing but run as the Vrykul storms the front gate, slaying the orcs instantly and began spreading across the keep, but as the Vrykul move inside the keep, more and more Vrykul appears behind Arthas, spawning up to an army to help purge this keep.

The defenders of the keep was caught by surprise by this huge attack all the sudden and are unable to defeat this immortal army. The orcs counter against this threat, but their weapons are no match against them and their captains are left to fight alone while their soldiers left them to die. Arthas eventually joins in on the fighting, finding the captains and destroying them himself by using another ability like the power of 'Brand' to mark his victims and bring them under his command, but those who have a strong will get their heads slice off their bodies.

Inside the main keep, the Overlord known as Grimlock the One-Eye sat on his throne with two captains by his side, hearing the commotion happening outside his front door and could see a handful of Uruks storming inside his own keep. Thirty of them came flooding inside the keep, hiding from the spirits of the dead and hope they could hold out inside the interior.

"What is all of this!?" Grimlock rises up off his throne, furious at the Uruks who have come into his throne room. "What is happening outside!?"

The Uruks inside the room quickly barricade the front door with their bodies, holding onto the front door and making sure the ones outside could not enter the interior. The ones outside continues to hit against the door, asking to be let in, but they get no response and tries to breach through the door. However, eventually it quiets down when the spirits of the dead finally arrives and slaughters every last one of them, bringing nothing but awkward silence from the outside.

Grimlock moves off his throne, drawing out two flaming axes and comes to the centre of the room with his two captains behind him, waiting for something that is about to happen in a minute. After a minute of waiting, the front door suddenly breaks through and the three Uruks who held onto it got torn apart by their own captains. Arthas and three captains, one was an Orc while the other two are Uruks. They came inside the room and forces the ones inside to move back so they could give them some space and to cower behind their Overlord.

Grimlock aims one of his axes towards Arthas and says "What are you two doing?" He asks when turning his eyes to the captains and getting no response from any of them. "What have you done to my warriors?"

"Your warriors lay dead at my feet." Said Arthas "This keep belongs to me now. You no longer dominate this keep anymore, I do." He aims his sword towards Grimlock and says "Your life belongs to me now."

"You are not the first human to take me out… And I will not bow to the likes of a maggot like you! Kill them all!"

Arthas and the captains by his side charges against the Overlord and his two captains. They clash against one another in this room while the Uruks behind them stay back, but they soon join the fight when more Uruks who now belong to Arthas began running around the fight and charges straight towards them. The interior now became a battle for survival, a battle where everything is against the Overlord and his last warriors, but they continue to fight on against Arthas and his servants. The Overlord Grimlock continues his onslaught against Arthas, clashing his flaming axes against his sword, pushing Arthas back and making sure that Arthas cannot counter against his attacks. During his rapid attack, the Orc captain joins in by attacking Grimlock from the side and giving Arthas the chance to attack. Grimlock strikes down the Orc captain with his flaming axes, burning this Orc and was unable to block Arthas' attack as he strikes him in the chest, spilling some of his blood over the floor. Grimlock felt hurt for a bit, but he looks back to Arthas and starts swinging like crazy, enraged at the fatal wound and forcing Arthas to back away as Grimlock attacks.

"You cannot defeat me!" Grimlock shouts out while continue swinging his axes "This wound is nothing!"

"I guess I better improvise." Arthas jumps back and uses another ability he learns during his assault on the keep. He attacks Grimlock with a sudden quick speed attack by using the power of the wraith, he slows everything around him and manage to appear right in front of Grimlock without him even noticing. Arthas attacks on the right moment, sending his blade through his chest and ending his fiendish attack. Grimlock stops and looks down at the blade through his chest then looks back to Arthas and was just about to swing his flaming axe at him, wishing to kill him too, however, Arthas pulls his sword out and sent his sword through his head and sent it flying through the air.

Grimlock the One-Eye, the Overlord who held onto this fortress for two years is finally dead. Arthas spills his blood and his warriors all over the floor, leaving none of them alive. Once they are dead, he makes his way outside by walking up to the balcony on the top of the keep, showing the undead Uruks and the ghostly spirits of the Vrykul the proof of the Overlord's dead. He stood outside with the head of Grimlock in his hand, showing his head to thousands of his soldiers and giving them a cheer of victory.

Arthas threw the head of Grimlock off the balcony and delivers a speech to his warriors while showing to have one side of his body in wraith while the other side stays human. "Today, this here is the beginning a new age, a new change of power is right for the taking and the one who shall lead you is me. I am Arthas… And I hereby begin the rise of the Scourge!"


	9. Chapter 9

The region of Borean Tundra split in half after Arthas began his campaign into Northrend and his new military faction under his command, called the Scourge, terrorises the region and bringing death to half the army and raising them all to serve Arthas and his conquest. This was a new change and a rise of another power faction, but the strangest thing is that the Nazgul or Agandaur is not taking part of this, instead they are letting Arthas grow in power so they could make a move on him later.

Meanwhile, inside the lands of Mordor, the forces of the Haradrim and the men of Marwen from the east, launches an all-out assault against the keep of Nurnen. They finally send the assault onto the mainland with their main army, bringing their forces onto the mainland and began their assault on the walls. The ships that surrounds the main fortress let loose fireballs and arrows over the walls, dealing much damage and spreading chaos within the ranks of the Uruks. While they are in danger

King Darius and his forces on the mainland held back when approaching the front gate, waiting for the signal to charge straight through with what is left of their forces. Vanessa Cromwell came and assist on the sabotaging some key areas, breaking the front gate and releasing a firedrake that was held captive. The drake took flight and targets the Uruks who held the drake here for a long time, burning the Uruks around the gate and also burning some on the walls when they began firing on it.

Once the gate is broken and the firedrake is dead, King Darius drew his sword and charges straight towards the front gate with the Haradrim and Marwen by his side, charging straight through and clashing against the Uruks. They knock the Uruks back as they were not ready to deal with a frontal assault so quickly, pushing the Uruks back and forcing two captains to come into the scene and try to push the forces of men back. During the clash, the ships on the water cease fire, not wanting to target their own comrades when they find out that they are in and once they are in, they try to sail close, beginning to send more troops from within.

Darius battles against one of the captains, clashing against an Olog-Hai who is from the Dark Clan, battling against him for a while and struggle to lay a few hits against it. While that was happening, the other captain who is a tracker from the Terror Tribe came up on the roof, tracking down Vanessa and calls out to her when he does. He calls out to her, saying "Hey, woman! You're the one who killed my Blood-Brother. I still can't believe you killed my Blood-Brother, but he's dead, and now I got to have to kill you."

Vanessa charges to this captain, swinging her daggers and pushing him back, soon to give him a kick and sent him off the roof and onto the floor. Once he fell, she jumps over another roof, striking down another archer then looks back when that captain came back onto the roof again. He was not going to let her get away, he quickly drew his spear and charges towards Vanessa, enraged with great stamina due to sustain injuries from the fall. Vanessa fights and struggles for a while, soon to roll to the sides and continue evading his attacks until the captain calms down. She eventually threw one of her daggers at his foot, pinning him down and distracting him for only a moment for her to throw her other dagger and hitting the captain in the face the moment he looks back to her. Vanessa kills him then got back her daggers and tosses this dead captain off the roof, sending him on top of an Uruk down below.

Back to the fight between Darius and the Olog-Hai captain who is still causing trouble against him. The captain continues swinging his large mace down at Darius, manage to give him a few injuries, but he continues avoiding his attacks and continues striking at the captain, but doing little damage to it. Darius soon charges while taking a spear off the ground, sending his sword first through the chest then send the spear through the neck, but the captain stops his spear and breaks it in half. Darius drops the spear and pulls his sword out of the captain and takes another hit with his mace, sending Darius to the ground. Before the captain was ready to finish him off, Vanessa came down to the rescue by jumping off the roof, landing behind the captain and sending her daggers through the back. The captain stops his attack and felt an agonising pain from those daggers as they went through his body, making Vanessa to stay on his back while holding onto the daggers. The captain backs away and moves his hands backwards, trying to grab her, eventually jumping off and leaving her daggers inside the captain.

"Come on, Darius!" Vanessa shouts to him while moving to the right side of the captain and keeping an eye on Darius.

Darius rushes in with his sword and takes a leap in the air and sending his blade through the chest of the captain. He sent the captain falling back to the ground and finishes him off with a sword to the face, killing him instantly. After it was dead, he pulls his sword out of the captain and gets off of him.

"You alright?" Darius looks to Vanessa

"Don't worry about me." Vanessa looks to the right towards the gate then towards the left on the pathway "I don't think we can hold out for much longer."

"Agreed." Darius said then looks out towards the keep "We got to take out their leader."

"He'll be expecting us." Vanessa said

"I know, but we got no other choice." Darius looks to Vanessa then back towards the keep "let's go.'

The two run together through the streets and through the battles inside the fortress, fighting their way through to the second level of the fortress where the enemy awaits them. Once they cross the bridge that leads to the gate, they notice a captain waiting for them and a group of Uruks by his side. The two stands ready and charges in, fighting against the Uruks while the captain takes his time to enter the fight and once he does, he attacks Vanessa first with his shield, knocking her back then swings his spear towards Darius and clashes against his sword. The two engages the captain for a while, having Vanessa to attack from behind while Darius keeps distracting the captain from the front, continuing to hit his shield with his sword. Vanessa finishes him off from behind, by sending her two blades through the top shoulders, sending them through and weakening him and allowing Darius to finish him off with a sword through the chest then a decapitation.

"Let's go!" Darius said to Vanessa then runs towards the gate, fighting against two more Uruks that stands in his way.

Vanessa climbs up the wall and onto the towers, attacking one of the Uruks on the top and taking a siege weapon that happens to be a Graug. She turns the Graug around and sends a fireball belong the gate, wiping out a dozen Uruks that stood behind it.

Elsewhere, inside the keep of Nurnen lies the Tower, sitting there on his throne and waiting for his enemies to come for him. Darius and Vanessa broke through the front door and together they walk up the steps, confronting the tower inside his throne. The Tower smiles and says to the two "It took you long enough. I see you've been busy since the last time we met, but no matter, soon the Banshee Queen shall return and deliver a terrible torment to you and whoever serves you."

"The only thing this Banshee Queen will find is the free people of Middle-Earth, standing against her wrath and laying waste to her undead army."

"She has plans for you all." The Tower said when rising up off his throne "All of your victories mean nothing to her. She will bring the war to everyone around her. She'll bring the great flood of war over all of your lands in just one swoop of her power."

"Enough of this!" Vanessa runs towards one of the Uruks in the room and threw one of her daggers through the head at halfway. Once she got over to get her dagger, she turns towards the Tower and charges towards him.

"Hold up!" Darius charges in and strikes down one of the other Uruks nearby, but after slaying that Uruk, he looks back to the Tower who suddenly appears right in front of him, swinging these large widen arm blades against his sword. The Tower pushes Darius back, pushing him back then turns towards Vanessa who came running to the side and knocks her back too.

Darius and Vanessa team up against the Tower, attacking in perfect synchronize team, having one attack against his blades while the other attacks below the waist or to the legs. They soon weaken the Tower with this perfect hit attacks on both sides, getting a strike through the left knee and got Darius to remove the right arm of the Tower, sending him on his knee and brought the final end to him by beheading him with Darius' sword. The Tower had fallen, however, they have forgotten that he is an illusionist when it comes to fighting as they soon find out when his whole body vanishes, leaving no trace of him.

"Where'd he go?" Vanessa asks when looking left to right

"An illusion…" Darius mutters to himself then looks back to Vanessa and could see the Tower approaching her from behind "Behind you!"

Vanessa turns around and was too late to block his attack, taking a strike across the chest and sent her to the floor. Darius shouts out and charges, swinging his sword rapidly with both hands to the handle, clashing against the Tower while he smiles when blocking every single attack Darius has done to him. Once the Tower was done toying with him, he attacks, pushing Darius back, giving him a cut across the face and another one across his left arm, but not deep enough to injure him badly.

Vanessa gets back up and watches the fight between Darius and the Tower, seeing Darius is not doing so well. She gets up and charges back into the fight, surprising the two with a type of toxic bomb she was carrying, saving it for this moment. She shouts out to Darius "Get back, Darius." Then threw the toxic bomb towards the Tower and ends up exploding right in his face.

Darius rolls out of the way and avoids the toxic fumes. The Tower comes out of the toxic fumes, distracted at the toxic fumes and not realising Vanessa attacking through the smoke. She charges through the fumes, covered her face with a bandana and also to hold her breath just in case, quickly jumping up at the Tower and lunging her two blades through his chest, sending him to the floor. After that success, the Tower was still one step ahead of them and ends up vanishing just like before.

"We can't beat him like this." Darius said while holding his sword at the ready in front of him. He looks left to right, finding no sign of the Tower. However, just when the Tower makes his move against Darius, someone suddenly makes an appearance and stops him before the Tower could attack.

A sudden arrow of light pierces the Tower on the chest, stopping his attack and got Darius to look back and swinging his sword against the Tower. He was sent back, injured by the two attacks and looks around to see who shot him with that arrow. A familiar face comes to the scene, making her appearance to face the Tower and join forces with Vanessa and Darius. It was Eltariel, the elven woman who is known by the elves as the Blade of Galadriel. She came back to Mordor after realising how things are progressing right now, seeing that Sylvanas has become a serious threat to Middle-Earth and has come to help the forces of Middle-Earth to help combat against the Forsaken.

Eltariel runs straight towards the Tower, sliding past him and giving a cut along the side of his right leg then shot him in the back with another arrow. She damages him greatly with these light arrows that pierces through his skin, making him vulnerable for the others to finish him off.

Vanessa attacks when the Tower turns towards Eltariel, hitting the Tower from the back and got him to turn back and hit against her. Darius comes in and blocks his attack, he fights back and together, with Vanessa and Eltariel, they brought him down to his knees. Darius finishes this with his sword through the mouth of the Tower, sending his sword through the other sword, keeping it inside his body for a while then pulls the blade out and beheads him once more. The Tower collapses onto the floor, expecting he would vanish, but there was no signs of him vanishing anytime soon, this time, he is dead.

Darius sighs deeply after realising the Tower is finally dead, he lowers his upper body down to face the floor and holds onto his sword with one hand. When he rises up, he looks towards Vanessa and asks "Are you alright?"

Vanessa looks back to him while placing her daggers away and pulling down her bandana "I'm fine." She looks to Eltariel who places her weapons away "Thank you."

Darius looks to Eltariel "Who are you?"

"I'm the Blade of Galadriel. My name is Eltariel."

"We appreciate on helping us."

"Don't mention it." Eltariel turns to the exit and starts to walk past them, but stops and looks back to them "But right now, you should stop pushing further into Mordor."

"What?"

"She's coming." Eltariel said "She's bringing the whole army back down into Mordor, and you'll won't be able to stop what she's planning on doing." She looks forward and walks away

Darius and Vanessa looks back to each other, worried at the moment at what she said and hopes that she was lying about what she is saying to them. Right now, they have other things to deal with outside this keep.

As the threat slowly dies out in the southern lands of Mordor, bringing the Lands of Nurnen under the control of the forces of Marwen and Harad. However, as they won the battle, Middle-Earth still suffers deeply after the loss of a famous and great wizard that walks the lands of Middle-Earth. The great Gandalf the Grey, falling to the Balrog and leaving the Fellowship of the Ring in disarray. After he fell, they continue into the Lands of Lórien, there they could recover from this and prepare to continue the journey across the river and through the forest.

Elsewhere, the Dark Wizard Saruman plots an attack against the Fellowship while the wizard Gandalf is no longer with them. This became the perfect opportunity to make his move and to take the One Ring from Frodo, however, they may lost Gandalf, but they still have two of the best warriors of men, an amazing elven archer and a powerful dwarf warrior.

The Uruk-Hai engages the Fellowship in the forest, fighting against four of them while Frodo and Sam leave the scene, running from the fight and preparing to sail to the other side of the river to escape the Uruk-Hai. As for the other two Hobbits, they soon fell into captivity when Boromir, a brave and famous warrior of Gondor fell in battle at the hands of the Uruk-Hai. Before he fell, he heroically fought off against dozens of Uruk-Hai, killing as many as he can and protect the two Hobbits, but he eventually fell on that day and the two Hobbits are no more, grabbed by the Uruk-Hai and left the scene.

The Fellowship of the Ring was over, but the story for all of these people who are part of this group continues on and help protect the lands of men against the forces of Saruman. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas prepare to go chase after Merry and Pippin by chasing after the Uruk-Hai and stopping them before they reach Saruman.

While things are slowly moving into motion, there was one person who was hidden from the action right now and that is Sylvanas. The Banshee Queen and her armies of the Forsaken, still battles on against the Easterlings in Rhun. She and her army manage to arrive to the main capital of Rhun and laid siege to it for some time now, battling against the Easterlings on the walls, battering down the front gate and fighting against the Easterlings for a long time. The Easterlings manage to hold off against the Forsaken, the walls are much stronger and tough to breach through and thanks to Sauron, he brought eight of the Nazgul to help defend the place and battle against the Forsaken.

After a while of fighting, reinforcements of the Easterlings from across the lands arrive and began flanking the undead outside the walls. The Easterlings arrive and attacks the main army outside the walls, they manage to surprise the Forsaken at first during the cover of the night and manage to destroy some of their siege weapons. Sylvanas and her army quickly reforms and began fighting on three fronts during the attack and while the Easterlings push her back, she never orders a retreat and continues the battle. She helps push the tides when she comes into the fight, unleashing her wrath upon the Easterlings and bringing fear to the lines and allows her army to push through their defences and manage to cut a piece of their army off. Once that happen, her armies charge straight into the capital and brought a terrible slaughter inside the capital and brought the capital of Rhun falling to the Forsaken.

Sylvanas had her shot against the Nazgul, fighting against them inside and outside the city and manage to banish two of them that were outside. She battles against the others, using her captains to distract them so she could get close to banish them with her ring, but thanks to her power, she could turn them on her side, but somehow, everytime she gets closer of converting them to her side, they are sent back to Sauron. Sylvanas did not care much for the lesser Nazgul, but she did care about claiming the Witch King of Angmar for her own. She banishes the others and wishes to take Sauron's best general, taking the Witch King for herself and was very close at succeeding. However, the Witch King manage to flee before she had a chance to fully control him, leaving Sylvanas nothing, but at least she brought the capital to ruin.

Victory came to the Banshee Queen and the Forsaken, winning the fight against the Easterlings and killing over fifty to seventy five thousand people in Rhun. Sylvanas also lost a large force of the Forsaken, losing the exactly number of casualties the Easterlings lost, losing fifty thousand Forsaken warriors and losing half of her army in this campaign. Sylvanas was not upset, only enjoying herself while she sits on the throne and celebrates her victory against the Easterlings. After she claims the capital, she begins to depart from these lands with what is left of her army, giving the land back to the Easterlings and showing them what happens if they start a fight against her. But before she leaves, she takes a slow walk down the bloody streets of this city, slowly bringing the dead back to life and restore everything she lost during the fight. Once she made it outside, seeing her army of Forsaken warriors that are waiting for her, Sylvanas joins her army and begins their march back to Mordor while the undead army of Easterlings rise up and follows her army from behind.

During the walk back to Mordor, Sylvanas notices one of her comrades racing towards her on a Caragor. It was Alistra, one of her undead elven lieutenant to her army. She comes towards her with some news on the front, filling in on the details on what is happening to Anya in Gondor and about the loss of the Tower and the loss of Nurnen.

"What do you mean we've lost Nurnen?" Sylvanas asks while standing her ground and so does the army behind her

"The Tower is dead." Alistra said "Killed by men from the east and south. The kingdom in the east has arisen to its peak and has offered an alliance with the Haradrim from the south."

"You have got to be kidding me."

Alistra shakes her head "I wish it were false. The men have already taken the island and have begun fortifying the region."

Sylvanas looks furious at this discovery. She warns Alistra "I don't want to hear anymore! You are to take an army near Barad-Dur and reinforce Seregost. I don't want them claiming that fortress, get it done!"

"Yes milady…" Alistra turns back and starts running back to Mordor.

Sylvanas looks back at her armies and speaks out to them "It seems another force has come to claim Mordor from me. Anyone who thinks they can take it from me, they are dead wrong! When we make it to Mordor, we will purge every single living human there is in those lands. Once they are dead, we can at long last take out Sauron and end this." She turns forward and shouts out "To war!"

The Forsaken begins the march back to Mordor, making the long march back from the north and make their way through into Mordor. Once they arrive in Mordor, there is no way the forces from Marwen and Harad could stand against such a full force of a hundred thousand undead soldiers. She will take a day's journey back into Mordor and once she arrives, she will be ready to confront both the forces from the east and the forces from the west.

While her army leaves Rhun, returning it back to what is left of the Easterlings and allowing them to return to their capital. They eventually return in four days, finding some bodies still around while the rest have join forces with the Forsaken, forcing them to bury what is left of the dead. Since the emperor of the Easterlings have died in the battle, either part of the Forsaken or is dead somewhere, leaving no leadership to Rhun. This entire country would soon fall apart thanks to the Forsaken, kicking them out of the War of the Ring, making Rhun the first human kingdom to fall into chaos thanks to the Forsaken.

Rumours would soon rise, hearing the news that Rhun has fallen to the Banshee Queen and will not be long until other kingdoms are next to fall. Thanks to these rumours, the dwarves from Erebor and from the Iron Hills arm themselves for war, preparing themselves for a battle in case the Banshee Queen decides to invade Erebor. Tensions also grew to the forces of Dale, making them nervous as they could be the first to feel the wrath of the Forsaken, but they try not to worry about it as rumours about the Banshee Queen tells that she is only targeting Sauron's army.

As for the Kingdom of Gondor, the counterattack to reclaim Osgiliath is getting closer for a reality when reinforcements from Minas Tirith and other neighbouring lands that Gondor owns, bringing their army a total of over several thousand troops. Varian prepares for an immediate counterattack against the forces on the other side, but only he is leading the charge as Faramir is no longer in Osgiliath right now. He and a hundred Ithilien Ranger's left the city, moving to the north to help reinforce Gondor's region against any enemies from the north.

Right now, Varian and his army are on standby for the moment as Varian talks to some of the captains inside one of the ruins that was once a bank. "Listen up men." Varian speaks out "We attack on these certain areas, we'll use the archers to push the infantry back, then move our forces in position and start sending our men across the other side. I know the bridges are down, but our reports saying that the enemy are making their own wooden bridges to mount an assault against us. We'll use this to our advantage."

Suddenly, a ranger came into the meeting and interrupts Varian. "Lord Varian, I've bring word from Faramir."

Varian responds "What has he said from the front?"

"It's bad…" The ranger said "We've found Faramir…. He's dead."

"Dead?" Varian asks, shocked at what he just heard "How?"

"Faramir found his body near a waterfall. He's been dead for a while now."

"I don't believe it…"

"Sir!" Someone else calls out when approaching the others, revealing to be a Gondorian Soldier "The enemy are preparing."

Varian sighs "Guess we don't have time to mourn." Varian looks to the captains "Get to your positions." He looks to the two "We'll talk about this later."

Anya and her forces began the attack against the other side of Osgiliath, firing arrows over the city and so does the archers of Gondor, having them both shooting at each other on both sides of the river crossing. Once that is happening, the Uruks began bringing wooden bridge over the broken bridge, allowing their troops to quickly move on the other side. However, just when they tried that, Varian and his men are waiting for them and catches them off guard, bringing Varian and his soldiers on the offensive against the Uruks.

Anya went on the high point and got the look at the battlefield, quickly drawing out her arrows and joining the other archers on shooting back against the forces of Gondor. She shouts out "Push the attack, we can't afford to lose this city!" She soon stops shooting and looks to her left to one of the bridges, noticing Varian and his men pushing her army back.

Varian leads the charge through, swinging both his swords, carving his way through the enemy orcs in front of him. He continues striking through and his men spreads out when they reach to wide areas, soon to fight off against a large force of Uruks who awaits them around every corner. Varian and his army continues on, pushing the Uruks back and suffering serious casualties on their side as there enemy is doing everything they can to stop them.

Anya jumps on another building to get a view of Varian and tries to shoot him from above. She uses a special arrow, a perfect arrow for Varian to bring him down if she should succeed on hitting him. She takes aim and fires while Varian was busy fighting off against a strong captain. However, just as she fires, Varian became very lucky as a Gondorian Soldier ran past him and took the hit, taking the hit on the left shoulder and fell to the floor while Varian beheads the captain and looks to the soldier who fell in front of him. He saw him badly hurt with just a simple arrow, but when he looks up at Anya, she fires another arrow and misses again as he was prepare to block her second attack with his sword.

Anya retreats for now and keeps her eyes on Varian. He continues the attack, but he stays hidden like inside the buildings while watching the rooftops and making sure he does not get attack by her again. Varian ends up seeing her very soon when she came down from the rooftops, riding on a Caragor and using it against the Gondorian Soldiers. She rides forward with her blade, striking the soldiers while her pet Caragor devours them.

Varian raise his sword in the air and shouts out "For Gondor!" He charges straight towards Anya and the Caragor, the same goes to her when she charges straight towards him. Anya's Caragor takes a leap towards Varian, but the moment that happen, Varian got underneath it and threw the Caragor over him, sending the Caragor to the ground. Anya collapses and gets back up, quickly drawing her bow to shoot at Varian as he comes charging towards her, but she misses and Varian shatters her bow and sends his blade straight inside of her. She gasps when feeling the blade through her then looks to Varian's face then down to her chest, seeing the blade through her body.

Varian says to her "That has to kill you." He pulls the sword out of her then beheads her before she had a chance to speak, just to make sure she does not come back from the dead. He watches Anya fall to the ground for a moment, muttering to himself "Go in peace, elf."

Varian returns to the army and leads the counter offensive against the Forsaken, driving them back and gaining a foothold on the other half of Osgiliath. What is left of the captains try to hold back against Gondor, but with the fall of Anya, they struggle to maintain order within the ranks. Eventually, Varian would gain control over Osgiliath again and whatever is left of the Forsaken ends up retreating outside of the city.

Another victory came to Gondor when Varian and his warriors took back Osgiliath, this here was for Boromir, taking back the whole city was for him and once they took back the city, Varian was force to tell the truth to his men about Boromir. Boromir is gone and Varian still remains in command of the Gondorian Army. However, after what happen here, this is far from over between Gondor and the Forsaken.

Sylvanas, the Banshee Queen of Mordor finds out that Anya is dead, she could feel it through the power of the ring since the ring and her power are now one and could tell who is dying out there. Sylvanas has gain a victory against Rhun, but must now face against the other two threats against Mordor, like the alliance from Marwen and Harad and against the forces of Gondor.

Sylvanas stands in the icy lands of Seregost, standing on the ice with a dozen Uruks by her side. She says to herself "I am done, waiting. They think they could make a fool with me while I'm out, well they are about to find out how I am capable of."

A dozen Uruks stands in three rows, pulling a large chain where it connects against something that lies under the ice. After a long pull, a large object came rising up out of the icy water, a beast that has been in this water for a long time and Sylvanas plans to reawaken it once again. Once the beast is free, Sylvanas makes her way towards it and use the power of the ring to dominate this demon of old, a legendary Balrog of Morgoth, Tar Goroth.


	10. Chapter 10

A coming darkness threatens the lands of Middle-Earth, two deadly fronts that would soon collide in a deadly match to determine who is stronger enough to rule Middle-Earth. Sauron is getting ready, his army is almost close of completion and once he is ready, the Witch King shall send his army to face the Forsaken and Gondor is going to be part of it.

Not just the Witch King is ready for a full frontal assault, a quick rise of power is rising inside Isengard as an army of Uruk-Hai is ready to launch an attack against the men of Rohan. King Théoden is force to abandon his home and take refuge with his people into Helm's Deep, the only stronghold that could stand a chance against Isengard, but the cost of defending this place is a risky gamble. However, not just the forces of men are ready to stand against Isengard, help came to assist from Elrond and Galadriel to send a small army of elves to help reinforce Helm's Deep. Haldir takes the command of the elves of this operation, they go through the enemy lines and are on their way to Helm's Deep to join a fellow elven friend and the future King of Gondor.

While this invasion is underway, three other elves who are part of this are no longer here and are off in Rivendell. Vereesa and Lor'themar stays in Rivendell, organising a strike force to help Glorfindel on a strike against the orcs in Arnor, but after what has been happening inside Northrend, things have begun to change.

Arthas Menethil has begun his fight against Agandaur who is waiting for him somewhere in the north, massing an army of orcs on an invasion against the men of Vrykul. Agandaur faces the civilisation of the Vrykul by attacking their borders and trying to claim something that is hidden in Northrend. Arthas plans to find what he is looking for, but first, he takes his forces somewhere in the north and attacks a checkpoint area.

Arthas and his undead warriors battle against the orcs in the snowy fields, he fights through this checkpoint until his side is left standing and once they are all dead around him, he begins raising them back up to join his side. All came back from the dead except for one who survives thanks to Arthas, but only because he wants information regarding Agandaur and his plan in the north.

"What is Agandaur planning?" Arthas asks the captain while keeping his right hand over the side of his face "Tell me his plans. Now!"

The captain responds, but struggles to answer his question "He's… Searching… For something… Deep in Northrend…"

"What is it?"

"A… Dragon..."

"Dragon? There aren't any more dragons in Middle-Earth."

"Agandaur has found one…"

Arthas sighs "Guess I don't need you anymore." He moves his hand away and decapitates his head with his sword. He looks back at the orcs that stands near him "We move to the east, get your forces ready to move."

"Yes, master."

While Arthas takes his leaves, he soon stops when hearing the voices of the Nazgul from the power of the ring he wields. He hears them, saying "You cannot hope to maintain the full power of the Dark Lord. You will join us, it is your destiny."

Arthas looks forward and starts walking with the others, but ignoring them is not going to maintain the dark powers that flows through his body. His appearance has already been consume in darkness, seeing his armour, his cape and hair changing to a darker look the more he wields or use the power of the ring.

In the eastern lands of the Vrykul, the enemy has launch a siege against Drak'Tharon Keep in the Grizzly Hills. The Vrykul have held onto this fortress for a few days now since Agandaur and his army came through the borders, attacking the lands and sending most of his forces to this keep. The one in charge, named Brita, stands alongside her archers on the wall, firing her arrows down at the orcs as they come storming the steps and entering the interior. She and her archers on the wall drew their swords and began moving inside, joining the others on defending the interior against the orcs.

Outside of the keep, Agandaur and a few captains stands beside him on mounts, having Agandaur the only one with a horse while the other captains are on wolves. They watch the army storm the keep while another piece of his army was moving off elsewhere, attacking the Grizzly Hills and invading other settlements nearby.

As the fight continues, a horn goes off from somewhere else, coming from behind Agandaur and his forces. When they look back, they see another army charging towards them, under the command of Arthas who has come for Agandaur.

"Go and bring me his head." Agandaur said when staring towards Arthas

"Finally." One of the captains said and rides out on his Caragor with the other two towards Arthas and his army.

The back end of the Orc army turns around to face against this rampaging force that comes running straight at them. Most of the orcs turn around to face Arthas while the rest continues the attack to push through, but with the army splitting in two, this may become a serious mistake on both fronts.

Arthas charges in with his army at the front, clashing through the army of orcs, fighting alongside his once enemy, but now he fights with them as weapons of war against the real enemy. He fights his way through till the end, eventually coming across a captain who calls out to Arthas.

"Hey dimwit! If I see my Blood-Brother brought from the dead to serve you. I am going to lose it!" This captain roars then draws out a poisonous spear and throws it towards Arthas.

Arthas blocks the spear with his sword and starts moving through the gaps in the battle to reach this Uruk captain. This captain threw a few more arrows, but misses Arthas and was force to change weapons to a poisonous sword to clash against Arthas' sword. Arthas battles on with this captain for a time, but once he was badly hurt with Arthas' serious attack through the chest with his sword, he was close of losing, but somehow, he had more strength to continue the fight with Arthas for a while longer.

Meanwhile, Agandaur watches the battle from where he is by himself, but he turns his attention to the left when an Uruk on a wolf approaches him. "Milord!" The Uruk shouts out to him "We've found the dead dragon's nest."

Agandaur looks back to the battle then to the Uruk and takes the reins of the horse "Show me."

Arthas finally brings the captain back down to his knees and wraps this up by cleaving him in half through the waist. Once he was dead, he looks to the right and notices his captain was nearby, fighting another captain and not doing so well. This Uruk captain knocks the hurtful captain to the ground, punching him to the face a couple of times and ends it by firing a crossbow at close range through the head. Once he is dead, the Uruk captain turns to Arthas and shouts out to him.

"Man filth! You –" He stops when an Olog-Hai captain interrupts him by swinging a strong mace across the side of this captain, sending him flying to the side and collapsing on top of undead Uruks where they began swinging like crazy until this captain is dead.

"These captains don't shut up!" Said the Olog-Hai captain who looks towards Arthas. He looks out and continues fighting against the others.

Arthas smiles and looks out, quickly blocking an Uruks attack and counters by sending his sword straight through the neck. After it was dead, he quickly begins to raise the dead around him, using the power he has to raise a large handful of dead Uruks that surrounds him. He looks forward and charges forward, fighting against the others that began moving away, preparing to flee into the east through the Grizzly Hills.

The enemy is on the retreat into the Vrykul territory and allowing Arthas' forces to regroup and resurrect the fallen. As for the Uruks that are still inside Drak'Tharon Keep, they still press on while not realising that they have lost backup outside. They only last for a while longer against the Vrykul, knocking them back to a point where they finally lose the fight after Brita kills the captain and brought the attackers to death.

Arthas looks out towards Drak'Tharon with his army behind him, moving over the bodies and killing any survivors that are still alive. While Arthas looks at the keep, an Olog-Hai captain walks up to Arthas and asks "Do we attack the fortress, kill everyone inside?"

Arthas looks back, disgusted at what he heard and responds "No. You take your army and claim Carn Dum." He turns towards the east where the enemy Uruks are fleeing "Leave Agandaur to me."

Agandaur arrives to an icy prison where his servants have already taken care of the Vrykul nearby that tried to stop them. He comes inside the cave, covered in ice and snow and blood that spills over the icy floor. He makes his way through the end of this cave, finding his Uruks who have begun breaking the ice to free the legendary firedrake of Sapphiron. Long ago, this ancient dragon was found by the dwarves in the Second Age, a dragon that has eaten a dwarf king and eaten one of the second rives of the dwarves. This dragon was a target for the dwarves and for the Vrykul as they both work together to bring this dragon down since it has become a threat to both kingdoms. The dwarves manage to bring the dragon down while the Vrykul surrounds it and brought it to defeat, here, they slain the dragon and left its body inside the ice where it remains here for a very long time.

"Sapphiron." Agandaur mutters the name while looking at this icy dragon where half of the body is still lodge inside the ice. He looks at the Uruks "Get this dragon out of the ice, now!"

Agandaur hears a commotion happening behind him and finds two of his dead Uruks laying on the ground with Arthas standing before him, standing there, breathing heavily and cover in the blood of the fallen Uruks.

"Arthas…" Agandaur said when facing him and drawing out his sword "Why do you insist on fighting me? You cannot stop your destiny on becoming a Nazgul and becoming one of them. The ring has already been taken a hold on you, you will submit to the Dark Lord Sauron and when you do, everything you have accomplish will mean nothing. This land and the fallen kingdom of Arnor will fall, just like everything else in Middle-Earth."

Arthas charges and battles against Agandaur in this icy cave while the Uruks continues there job on breaking the ice to free the dragon Sapphiron. In this fight, the two fight an even match against one another for a while, but the two ends up delivering little cuts on their bodies, having Arthas with a cut across his face while Agandaur has a cut on his left arm. The two backs away from one another then attacks each other once more, they continue this way until Agandaur pushes him back and unleashes lightning from his left hand, knocking Arthas off his feet.

Agandaur looks to the Uruks behind him then looks to Arthas and aims his sword at him "Kill him!"

The Uruks turn towards Arthas and drew weapons to attack. Arthas got up and surprises Agandaur by using his wraith powers to appear in front of one of them. He sent his blade straight through one of them then beheads them and does the same thing to the others, using his wraith vanishing powers to slay them at a quick speed like a wraith until there was just him and Agandaur. Once they are down, Agandaur hits him again with a lightning attack from his arm and sends him back onto the floor. He is sent back to the floor and Agandaur attacks while he is down, only to stop when Arthas blocks his sword from touching his body. He kicks Agandaur back then jumps back up and continues the attack, but this time, when Agandaur attacks with that lightning again, Arthas avoids it this time and lands a serious blow against Agandaur. Arthas slices the left arm off of Agandaur and sent his blade straight through the chest of him, bringing him down to his knees and spilling his blood over the icy ground.

"No…" Agandaur mutters "How is this possible? How can you withstand against the Dark Lord?"

"I don't." Arthas responds "Your service to the Dark Lord is no longer required anymore."

"What? How is that –"

Arthas stops him from talking by sending his blade straight through his mouth and go through the other side. He pulls the sword out then beheads him and sent his head rolling onto the floor. After he lays there on the ground, he sighs deeply after the long fight with him, which took him several minutes to kill him. "It is finished." He looks up at the dragon Sapphiron that still remains dead and stuck in the ice, but got the front row seat of this match between the two. Arthas approaches the dragon and places his hand that has the ring on it, onto the dragons head. "We've got work to do."

Elsewhere, tensions grow in Arnor as an army of men of the Dunedain arm themselves for war as the orcs from the north are getting closer of reaching to a limit where they are ready to go to war with Arnor. The defenders have acquire all they could get to organise an army that could stand against them, but it is not enough for the forces of men to fight alone. The elves from the east have already brought as many as they can, but it is not enough to defeat the armies of orcs. However, thanks to Calia Menethil, she returns to Fornost, telling the others that she has the dwarves of the Blue Mountain to join them, joining the forces of men and elves on the defensive in Arnor. The only thing they need now is Arthas to return, but as far as they know, they believe he will return with the army they need, but they have no idea that he will return as an enemy to Middle-Earth.

Back inside Rohan, the Uruk-Hai have overpower the forces of men and elves by driving them back inside the keep of Helms Deep. They have already breach through the walls, slaughtered all of the elves except for Legolas and is so close from breaching through the last gate where Aragorn and Théoden lies, holding off as long as they can until reinforcements arrive. Right now, King Théoden begins to doubt that help is ever coming since he has lost this old fortress to the armies of Isengard.

Meanwhile, in the city of Osgiliath, the forces of Gondor have regain the lost territory from the Forsaken and Varian plans to hold it against any incoming attacks from Mordor. Just as they hold on, they get reinforcements from the Ithilien Rangers and Faramir who has come to deliver Gondor a mighty gift that could help them face the enemy. He came here with two Hobbits and Gollum too, bringing them here to Osgiliath to take the One Ring from Frodo and plan to use it as a weapon against Sauron and Sylvanas.

Varian arrives to Faramir after he found out that he is here, once here, Faramir orders his rangers to fortify the walls and the buildings while he orders some men to watch over the prisoners. He keeps them away from Varian, knowing how he would react if he told him about what the Hobbits hold.

"You three stay here." Faramir said "Don't go anywhere." He turns back and goes to meet with Varian in one of the ruin buildings

Sam looks to Frodo and whispers "Frodo… You have no choice, we can't let these people interfere in our quest."

"Sam… I can't put on the ring." Frodo whispers back to him "If I do…"

"If you don't… Gondor will be destroyed."

"…"

"Faramir." Varian calls to him "How goes the north?"

"It's been quiet, but I have something that needs to come to my father." Faramir says to him

"What is it?"

"I found prisoners that needs to be with my father. I wish to send my father a mighty gift." He turns back towards where Frodo, Sam and Gollum are "A weapon that could change the tide of war."

"Faramir." Varian places his hand over his shoulder, which got him to look back to Varian 'I've heard about your brother. He was a good man."

"I know… I hope this will help my father."

"And maybe more reinforcements." Varian said

"I'll be right back." Faramir turns back and walks to the prisoners.

Varian turns back, but stops and looks back to Faramir who walks away. He looks forward and walks away, leaving the situation to Faramir and the men who are with the prisoners right now.

Sam looks over and notices Faramir walking towards them, he looks back to Frodo, still insist on using the One Ring, but Frodo still declines this offer. Once Faramir arrives, he says to the three "We've took back the city, but the enemy will return. It is time to go on the offensive, starting with the Ring of Power." He looks to the rangers who watch over them "Take them to my father."

Sam quickly protests this order and calls to Faramir as he was about to walk away "You want to know what happen to Boromir?" He asks Faramir, which got him to stop and look back towards him "Do you want to know how he died? He tried to take the ring from Frodo! After swearing an oath to protect him, he tried to kill him. The ring drove your brother mad!"

Faramir was stun at first after hearing this from Sam, hearing that his brother rejects everything he swore to protect and chose the ring over anyone else. But of course, he rejects this, since he knows his brother more than any of them put together.

Before Faramir could respond to this, something else happens when Varian looks up at the sky, hearing the screech of a cry that sounds similar to a Nazgul but from a drake. They could see it, flying towards the city with someone on board, a being they never thought they would ever see make an appearance. The Banshee Queen, Sylvanas, comes forth on this drake, armoured up and ready to let loose a gust of fire upon the men of Gondor. She swoops down over the city, attacking some of the rangers on the buildings with the claws from the drake and sometimes it let loose a gust of fire down onto the streets to burn some of the men.

"Everyone get into cover!" Varian cries out while drawing out his sword and looking up as the drake flies past him and flies over the city

Faramir looks to Frodo and Sam and Gollum, ordering them to stay where they are while he goes out to help fight against Sylvanas and her drake. So far, the rangers are unable to pierce through the armour the drake wears that covers most of its body and was difficult for them to target small spots that could hit the flesh. But as things progress badly for Gondor, things become worse for Frodo because the darkness of the Eye of Sauron, gazed upon this city, almost has its eye upon Frodo.

Frodo falls into a hypnosis as he starts coming out of cover and heads up the steps near him. Sam calls for him, but was getting no response from Frodo and he just keeps walking. Sylvanas did get her eyes upon Frodo, confused when seeing a little Hobbit, so far away from his home and is all the way out here on the battlefield. She flies closer to investigate and when she gets closer, Frodo stands on the middle of this bridge, lending his hand up to show to her the One Ring that she always dream she would want to see. Her eyes widen when she flies closer to Frodo, stunned at this discovery as she have never thought she would ever find the One Ring, and now it is right here, right in front of her that is right for the taking.

"I've never thought I would gaze upon the One Ring." Sylvanas speaks out while lending her right hand out to Frodo and shows him the bright blue light of the power of her New Ring. She smiles to Frodo "We both want the same thing, don't we? To destroy an enemy who has been intimidating us for the last time. Give me the ring, and I will destroy Sauron."

Frodo remains silent while still in a stasis right now. He closes his eyes while moving his hand closer to the ring to put it on, but Sylvanas sends her drake to come closer to him to grab him by the claws of the drake. Just as things are about to end in a close, Sam comes to the scene and saves the day when he grabs Frodo, stopping him from putting on the ring. The drake misses the target and just when the two Hobbits are on the ground, Faramir fires an arrow and manage to hit an open area to hit the flesh of the drake. Sylvanas loses control and flies back, quickly flying back while letting off a banshee scream at whoever shot her pet drake.

Varian shouts out the words "Fire!" Then a barrage of arrows came flying over his head and attacks the drake, forcing Sylvanas to withdraw from Osgiliath, but even though she could still fight, she decides to retreat.

Sylvanas retreats and gives Gondor the victory they desire, but as she flies back to Mordor, her face was still smiling, because she now knows where the One Ring is. Once she returns to Mordor, she has all the reasons she needs to begin her final plan to unleash her wrath upon the forces of Gondor and take the One Ring for her own.

Meanwhile, Frodo falls off the bridge and down the stairs with Sam, but just when they fall to the bottom, Frodo draws out his sword, getting on top of Sam and held his blade against his neck. The two Hobbits pause in this position with Frodo aiming his sword to his friend while Sam remains there, petrified and scarce.

"It's me…" Sam responds to him "It's your Sam. Don't you know your Sam?"

Frodo finally comes back into reality and realises what he is doing. He moves off of Sam, dropping his weapon onto the floor and sits back against the stone wall behind him. He starts panting as he sits back against the wall, feeling confuse as he forgets why they are here. "I can't do this, Sam." He shakes his head slightly

"I know…" Sam slowly gets back up off the ground "It's all wrong. By rights, we shouldn't even be here." He looks to Frodo then looks out at the view of the city and straight to the mountains where the lands of Mordor lies. "But we are… It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't even want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing this shadow is… Even darkness must pass and a new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo that I do understand, I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, but they didn't, they kept going because they were holding onto something.

"What are we holding onto, Sam?"

Sam looks to Frodo and grabs him to help him up off the floor so he could say these words to him face to face "That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."

Faramir stands nearby and heard that speech, which made him think for himself and not for the lust for power of any man who comes close to the One Ring. He comes over to Frodo and Sam, he crouches down in front of them and says to them "I think at last we understand one another, Frodo Baggins."

"You know the laws of our country." Said one of the men "The laws of your father. If you let them go, your life is forfeit."

Faramir looks to his friend who looks grief in his face and responds "Then it is forfeit." He then looks back to Frodo and Sam "Release the prisoners."

Meanwhile, after the Battle of Helm's Deep was over thanks to Gandalf who brought the armies of Rohan down upon the armies of the Uruk-Hai. Thanks to this victory for Rohan and the defeat of Saruman the White, they now could look upon what is ahead of them where the real darkness is rising inside Mordor.

"The Banshee Queen's wrath will be terrible, her retribution swift for Sauron and anyone who is against her." Gandalf says to the others while looking out at the horizon in the far distance where they could see the rumbling of the volcano of Mount Doom. They could see the darkness growing inside Mordor, an army ready to declare war on Sauron and everyone else. "The Battle for Helm's Deep is over. The battle for Middle-Earth is about to begin."

Inside the darkness of Mordor, Sylvanas returns where she takes control of her armies and calls upon her loyal elf friend Alistra who was waiting for her. After she lands her drake and gets off, she walks off with Alistra to follow her by her side.

"I want you to call off the attack on Nurnen." Sylvanas said while she keeps walking and looking forward

"Were not going to take back what we lost?" Alistra asks

"It doesn't matter anymore." Sylvanas stops and looks to her "We don't need it anymore. They can't do anything to us anymore. I have what I desire and what I desire is in Gondor." She looks forward and starts walking "I want everyone ready."

"Everyone?" Alistra looks to her

"Yes! I want the full house to destroy Gondor and anyone who ever gets in my way." Sylvanas stops when looking up at the sky when seeing the Balrog of Tar-Goroth flying over the sky and comes landing down right in front of her. She only took a step and lost her hood when the Balrog causes a tremor and a gust of smoke that surrounds the area. She smiles to the Balrog and responds "Let's get to work."


	11. Chapter 11

The coming darkness is rising in Mordor, the Banshee Queen is ready to invade Gondor to claim the ring that is no longer with them anymore. She believes she is attacking Gondor because she has to in order to take the One Ring from men and will stop at nothing to get what she wants, even if it means destroying everything the elves stand for in Middle-Earth.

While the Forsaken are preparing to depart from Mordor and attack with the biggest army the world has ever seen before, things are happening elsewhere when Sauron begins to launch his own assault against Sylvanas. Thanks to his merge with Celebrimbor, Sauron knows what Sylvanas knows thanks to the New Ring she wields and now knows that Frodo is in Gondor and he plans to get it before Sylvanas does.

Sauron calls forth his armies from Dol Guldur to empty the fortress and march to Gondor. His original plan was to lay waste to the elven lands of Lórien and the Woodland Realm, but desperate time's calls for desperate measures and Sauron wants the One Ring so he could overthrow Sylvanas. He sends the Witch King and several of the Nazgul to rise up and take back what was stolen from them, one even thought of gathering an army of what is left of the Easterlings to get payback on the Forsaken.

Right now, tensions rise all across Middle-Earth as the day for the battle of Middle-Earth to go underway. The dwarves from Erebor, Iron Hills and the Blue Mountains prepare to arm themselves for the coming battle, but even though Sauron is not attacking them, they must be prepare for what is coming. Although, if Sauron does not attack them, then it is possible for them to take part in this war. The same goes to the elves, since Sauron is not attacking them, they could both join the fight for Middle-Earth and face both Sauron and Sylvanas, unless they feel like helping the people of Arnor on their side.

Inside Rivendell, Lor'themar, Vereesa and Elrond got to see many of the people from Rivendell who are taking their leave from this place and preparing for the journey to the Undying Lands. If they survive what is to come in the future, they will join them to the west.

Lor'themar approaches Vereesa who was standing by the window, looking out at a group of elves who are walking away from the city. She looks back to Lor'themar then back out at the window. "The war is coming to Middle-Earth." Vereesa said "And we are packing up and leaving."

Lor'themar nods "I know. But not all of us are leaving."

"My sister was supposed to be here…" She looks back to Lor'themar "And she's never going to be with us after this is all over."

"There might be a chance you'll see her again if the creator wishes to reborn her into the next world."

Vereesa turns to face Lor'themar "Then I need to see her again."

"But how –"

"I know what she is planning on doing and I have to be there to stop her." She walks up to Lor'themar, standing close to him and looking up at him with an unhappy expression to him.

"Vereesa…."

"I know we have a job to do in Arnor, but I have to see my sister. I have to see what she is and save her."

"You do realise it will not be unpleasant if you see her. Not to mention that there's an army of orcs that stands between you and her."

"I don't care." Vereesa sighs while turning back and taking a few steps away from him

"Vereesa…" Lor'themar slowly walks back to her and places his right hand over her shoulder "I wish I could understand your bond between your sisters. I may not have anyone, but if I did has a brother and a sister and is in pain… I'll do anything to save them."

Vereesa looks back to Lor'themar "Then will you let me go and see my sister?"

"I can't stop you anyway." Lor'themar said "But promise me that you will come back alive. I wish to be with my friends when we take the trip together into the west."

Lor'themar smiles to her "I promise, Vereesa."

Vereesa rides out of Rivendell and rides straight to the south to make her way straight into Gondor where her sister will be coming. Not just Vereesa is going there, her other sister, Alleria Windrunner got a message from her sister that it is time to confront there fallen sister and save her from damnation.

While that was happening, Sylvanas was standing on the walls of the fortress of Gorgoroth, looking at the view of her army marching out of the fortress and prepares for the long march into Gondor. She looks at the sky when she sees the Balrog of Tar-Goroth, flying over the valley and making a hard landing on the ground. Tar-Goroth joins the orcs on this campaign as the new general to the Forsaken.

Alistra is seen riding towards her on a Dire Caragor "Milady!" She calls out to her when she got closer to the wall and got her attention "Your army in Seregost is already mobilising. They will come to the Black Gate soon."

"Lead my armies from Seregost." Sylvanas calls out to her then looks out at the view "I'll lead the assault."

Armies of the Forsaken comes forth as a large wave of darkness and a light from the blue markings they have on their faces. This army that estimates at almost up to two hundred thousand, preparing themselves for an all-out war with Gondor. With the Balrog of Tar-Goroth leading the siege and Sylvanas leading her armies to battle, there can be no chance of survivor for the men of Gondor. The only thing they can do is pray that hope arrives on the horizon, here to help drive the darkness out of Gondor and bring forth the age of the King of Gondor.

During the night in Middle-Earth, the forces of Rohan rest after they celebrate the victory of Helm's Deep and the fall of Saruman off his tower of Isengard. His tower now rules under the protection of the Ent's from the forest, here to help restore the forest from what it was before Saruman fell to Sauron's power. But as the darkness fades in Rohan, darkness is rising in the east of Mordor as the Eye of Sauron is moving, moving towards Gondor and keeps his eye there as he wishes to see how Sylvanas will go on taking Gondor while he could not achieve such an act in his time.

During that night, one of the Hobbits who is a real fool for taking the Palantir and a moment with the Dark Lord Sauron. He unleashes a terrible rumble on Pippin when he took the Palantir from Gandalf just so he could get a look at it, but this becomes his undoing when Sauron unleashes his corruption on Pippin and anyone else who touches it. During this confrontation, Sauron ends up giving Pippin a glimpse of Sylvanas' plan to him, either he wants his enemies to know or Pippin manage to see it. He saw a future plan on what Sylvanas is planning and thanks to this, Gandalf and the others now know what she is preparing to do right away. She is going to attack Minas Tirith.

Gandalf prepares his horse to travel to Minas Tirith when the sun shines on Rohan, there he tries to warn Gondor of what is coming their way. As he prepares, he invites Pippin on this task to travel to Gondor while Merry remains with Rohan. They travel through a long road ahead of them where they eventually find Minas Tirith when they reach the hill side, seeing this massive city in the distance. They made it just in time before the enemy does, seeing as they are getting close of reaching the city of Osgiliath.

Elsewhere, back inside Mordor, Vanessa returns to Nurnen after hearing word that the Banshee Queen has sent the full house of Mordor straight to Gondor, which gave them the chance to live longer. Vanessa comes back to Darius and Eltariel who are together in the fortress inside Nurnen, there they wait for her to return to give them the ill news.

"So Sylvanas has finally emptied Mordor." Eltariel said

"Gondor must be warned." Darius said "We have to help them."

"We can't." Vanessa said "I don't care less about Gondor and what happens to them. When the war is over, there's a place is right for the taking."

"You would take Gondor for its resources?" Darius looks to Vanessa, shocked at what she said

"What do you think we're doing right here? I sacrificed a lot of my warriors to get this far into Mordor."

"The same thing goes to me." He looks to Eltariel then to Vanessa "I lost a lot of people on this fight into Mordor."

"And now you have a chance to get more." Vanessa said "You told me you wanted Seregost. Now is your chance to get that place before the enemy comes back."

"It won't make a difference anymore." Eltariel said "If Sylvanas takes Gondor, where do you think she's going after next?"

"It'll be a long time until that hag comes to threaten us."

"Well… You can stay here and wait if you want." Eltariel turns towards the door and starts walking towards it while saying these last words to them "I'm going to stop Sylvanas."

Darius looks down slightly while sighing. He looks back to Vanessa and she says to him "Oh, don't you change this." She turns forward and takes a few steps towards the throne

"The situation is changing." Darius said

"Well what do you think was going to happen?" Vanessa looks back to him "Me and my men pledge our alliance with your people, not the people of Gondor."

"I know. But I came here to fight the Forsaken. And that is exactly what I'm planning on doing."

"W-What are you saying?"

"You got what you want. Your people got Nurnen and the south east of Mordor, but Seregost isn't what I planned on doing anyway."

"So this is it, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess it is." Darius smiles a bit to Vanessa "And I was just starting to like fighting beside you. I will leave you people to your work here in Nurnen. Good luck Vanessa." He turns back and walks away from this throne while Vanessa watches him leave and says no word to him to stay.

The forces of Marwen take their leave once King Darius gives the order to evacuate the area and hand it all over to the Haradrim. He leaves and returns to his people where he hopes he could make another army to help fight in Gondor, but after losing so many on this campaign into Mordor, it will be difficult to make an army to survive.

Elsewhere, inside the ruins of Fornost, the sun rises and the men awaken from their slumber to find themselves meeting with an army they never thought it could come. Alexandros, Darion and Renault come together outside the capital where they heard a horn go off in the east, a horn they heard before when the elves came here. Alexandros gazes upon an army of six thousand elves from the Woodland Realm, under the command of King Thranduil and his friend Lor'themar Theron who is by his side.

"King Thranduil?" Alexandros mutters the name when seeing the elven king ride towards him on a stag

"I've heard you are in need of help." King Thranduil speaks up

"How is this possible?" Renault asks, while astonish at seeing all of these elves.

"Word has come to my attention that the lost kingdom of Angmar is trying to rebuild itself into the north. I lost… So much from that kingdom and I am not going to let their deaths be for nothing if that kingdom should rise again."

"Thank you… Your majesty." Alexandros said when taking a bow to King Thranduil "You and your people are most welcome here."

"Glorfindel and a few elves from Rivendell have come to join the fight too." Renault said

"As well as the dwarves. Calia is on her way with an army that could stand against the legions of orcs."

"It seems that fate has come to bring the terrible battle in the north once again. It is almost as if…" Thranduil stops and looks out to the north "It's becoming another Battle of the Five Armies."

In the frozen lands of Northrend, Arthas walks over the snowy fields with his sword drawn out and his ring glowing bright. As he walks over the snow, the corruption is spreading throughout his whole body, his skin was turning pale with black veins swallowing his face and body. During his walk, he comes across one of the Nazgul who is Helm Hammerhead, standing in the distance with his Warhammer and looking back at Arthas.

"The time has come." The Helm speaks out "The Dark Lord has summoned you. The Witch King demands that you join him on destroying Gondor. You will obey."

Arthas stops and looks back at the Helm, remaining silent while the darkness covers his armour and changes it to a darker form like the Nazgul. Before the darkness consumes his face and brings a mask to cover his head, he responds by saying "I will come. I will obey." The mask consumes his face and is finally become one with the nine. At long last, the nine are back at their full power.

Arthas begins his dark campaign in the north by raising the army they need to restore their ranks and use them to attack Arnor and against the Vrykul. He leaves this whole operation to the Helm and another Nazgul who will arrive soon, but the rest of them are going to join the Witch King on the attack against the Forsaken with the army they have. Thanks to Arthas, the enemy now owns an undead dragon, a much greater dragon than what the Forsaken has and could be a means on destroying the Forsaken army and challenge the Balrog of Tar-Goroth.

Meanwhile, inside the city of Osgiliath that is about to get under attack by the Forsaken. Both Faramir and Varian quickly make haste to the walls as the Forsaken attacks Osgiliath directly. But just when the men get into positions at night, they soon come across something that shines bright in the dark sky. They gaze upon the first time, a Balrog of Tar-Goroth, coming down towards them from the sky and landing on the outside of the city. It lets off a roar while engulfing itself in flames, then creates a flaming whip and swings it towards the soldiers of Gondor who stands on the wall. Varian ducks on time when the flaming whip comes towards his side, but he lost several men in the process.

"Varian!" Faramir calls out, shocked at this attack and thought Varian was gone. He was relief to see him safe and sound, but he should not worry about that now because that Balrog continues its attack on the men on the wall.

Archers let loose a dozen arrows at the Balrog, they just bounce off of it and the Balrog ignores it, it just continues swinging its flaming whip upon the men on the walls, forcing them to abandon the walls and withdraw into the city. Once they are off, the Banshee Queen herself comes to reveal herself once they are fleeing by attacking the gate on her drake and fires a fireball to destroy it. With the gate down, the legions of orcs come flowing through the gate and engages against the forces of Gondor yet again.

"To arms!" Varian shouts out to his men while drawing his swords and quickly clashing against the orcs when they come smashing against their lines.

The battle for Osgiliath is underway a second time between Gondor and the Forsaken, there they face a much greater force than they have ever went up against before. The defenders could not push them back, Sylvanas was making sure to overwhelm them with everything she got so she could crush their spirit for any chance of victory against her. She is now done playing games with Gondor, she is ready to unleash her wrath upon Gondor.

The fight went on for a certain while, but Gondor lost half the city in just a few minutes with overwhelming odds. Faramir and Varian calls for a retreat, calling for all troops to withdraw back to the other side. But things got worse when the Balrog of Tar-Goroth comes blasting through the gateway to enter the city and join the orcs on the advancement into Osgiliath.

One of the Ithilien Rangers calls to Varian while they move back and stops at an area where it is clear for the time being. "We can't hold them with that giant shadowy demon in the way!"

"We can't lose this city to these invaders!" Varian looks back to him then looks forward and clashes against some orcs who comes charging at him. The man who spoke to him backs away while drawing an arrow and fires it towards an incoming Orc.

Faramir fights alongside a few men on pushing the orcs back, but when it was just him, he makes a run for it. He runs through the archways of his city, soon to meet with a handful of rangers who are ready to shoot the orcs once Faramir moves out of the way. He gets into cover and got the archers to shoot eight orcs dead, clearing the area for Faramir and the other ranger to speak before the orcs arrive.

"We can't hold them for much longer!" Said the man who speaks to Faramir.

Faramir looks out at the area, seeing the battle being fought across the city and seeing the forces of Gondor are losing this fight. "We make haste to the gate. We ride to Minas Tirith." He looks back to him "Go!"

Faramir and the others flee to the other gate to escape this slaughter from the Forsaken. Varian and the rest of the defenders hear the cry from Faramir, hearing him shouting out "Fall back! Fall back to Minas Tirith!" And when Varian looks up, he quickly rolls out of the way when Sylvanas dives down with her pet drake, unleashing a gust of fire down upon him and killing several Gondorian Soldiers.

"We have to fall back…" Varian mutters to himself. He gets up and shouts out to the soldiers nearby "Fall back to Minas Tirith!"

Gondor could no longer hold against the rampaging force of the Forsaken, especially when the Balrog of Tar-Goroth pushes through and continues laying waste to anyone that stands in its way. The defenders got on their horses or on foot and began moving as fast as they can back to Minas Tirith. Everyone fled in fear while the orcs overrun the entire city and remain where they are while Sylvanas gives chase, but the Balrog was told to remain put. She wants to have her fun with the men of Gondor by swooping down like an eagle, she lunges down to pick some of them up and sometimes let loose fireballs down upon them.

Gandalf rides out of Minas Tirith to save the day with Pippin by his side. He rides straight towards them while they run away from Sylvanas and her drake. Once he reaches closer, he raise his staff and shines a bright light from the top of his staff to shine it towards Sylvanas to make her pull back. She stops her attack after killing eighteen men then turns towards Gandalf who rides at the front of the group and brings them back to Minas Tirith while he deals with Sylvanas directly.

"So he's come." Sylvanas says to herself. She brings the drake down to the ground while Gandalf rides past the men of Gondor and confronts Sylvanas. She speaks out to Gandalf when he stands before her "Mithrandir. I've heard all about you."

"Stand your army down and return to where you came from." Gandalf speaks out

"I will not stand down until Gondor is part of the Forsaken. If you choose to stand in my way, I will show you no mercy."

"There is no need for war with Gondor!" Gandalf struggles for a moment with his horse when the drake makes a roar, which frightens the horse. "Your war is with Sauron, not with us. Don't go down this path, it's not too late."

"It is already TOO late." Sylvanas said "All of this… Is all their fault. They brought this to themselves and they will pay the price. If they destroyed the One Ring in the first place, I wouldn't have been like this… This… Abomination!"

"Your sisters would still love you, Sylvanas."

Sylvanas raise her head up high while looking down at Gandalf and taking a deep breathe in when he mentions about her sisters. Her eyes got more red and her ring got more brighter, she look furious when Gandalf said that and tries to remain calm for the time being, but she raise her right hand up to show Gandalf the New Ring on her finger. "I suggest you keep your mouth shut about my sisters… Or you'll end up being part of my legion."

"The ring…" Pippin mutters quietly when gazing upon the ring on the Banshee Queen's fingers.

"You better prepare yourself, Mithrandir. I'm coming for Gondor." She takes flight on her drake and flies back to Osgiliath. Gandalf's horse takes a few steps back when the drake flew off the ground. Gandalf watches her fly out of there, but his eyes turns towards the real opponent he would soon face in the distance. The Balrog of Tar-Goroth stands watch over Osgiliath, staring back at the same wizard who threw down a fellow Balrog in Moria and plans to face this same wizard to see if he really is the one who slain Durin's Bane.

Gandalf returns to Minas Tirith to hear the news from Faramir who told Gandalf that the orcs have taken the whole river crossing and Osgiliath. Some men pray as this has been foretold by the Stewart of Gondor, but he did nothing to prevent any of this to happen. But as Gandalf responds to Faramir, Faramir got his eyes down towards Pippin who still sits on the horse with Gandalf and was not surprise to see another Hobbit in a place like this. When he told Gandalf that he saw Frodo and Sam, he told him about where they are heading and who is leading them into Mordor.

Frodo and Sam and Gollum take the same route as they were meant to move, but even though Minas Morgul is in ruins, they still took the path high up the mountain where they will soon come face to face with Shelob the spider. Thanks to the corruption of the ring and the alliance with Gollum, Frodo abandons his best friend and the only man who could help save Frodo from the darkness. He discards him and works with Gollum on moving through the caves to avoid Shelob, but Gollum always desires to get his hands on the ring.

Meanwhile, Varian, Faramir and Pippin returns to the throne room where the Steward of Gondor hears the news of Osgiliath while Gandalf was standing on the walls with the soldiers. They could see the armies of Mordor slowly coming out of the gate, preparing to take the long march through this wide open field to reach and surround Minas Tirith.

The Steward of Gondor sits on the smaller throne and listens to Pippin as he performs his vows to serve him until death. After his vow, the Steward gets off his throne, accepting the oath that Pippin performs and allows Pippin to kiss his ring. The next thing the Steward does next is to perform a last good meal before the enemy makes their move to Minas Tirith.

Denethor speaks out to Faramir and Varian who stands together, frustrated and unhappy when standing in the room with this man. He says to them "I do not think we should so lightly abandon our outer defences… Defences that you, General Varian and your brother…" He turns his eyes back to Faramir when mentioning his son Boromir "Have long held intact."

"What will you have us do?" Faramir asks

"I will not yield the river of Pelennor unfought. Osgiliath must be retaken."

"Osgiliath is lost." Faramir speaks up

"The whole city is overrun." Varian steps a few steps towards the Steward "You were not there of what we saw –"

"Much must be risked in war." Denethor said when turning towards Varian for a moment "Osgiliath is our last line defence, which is why you will take the city back."

"The city is lost. I don't care how many men you ask of me to send, it does not matter anymore."

"Is there a captain here who still has the courage to do his lords will?" Denethor asks while placing a few potatoes and grapes onto his plate in front of him.

"I am the commanding general of Gondor's army." Varian responds "I will defend Minas Tirith against what is to come next. But I will not sacrifice thousands of my men in order to take back what was already lost."

"You will do as you are told!" Denethor raise his voice when turning his head back towards Varian "Or I will find someone who is more qualified to achieve such a goal."

Varian steps forward "The only way to claim Osgiliath is if we defeat Mordor, right here and right now. If you don't like it, then you better find someone else to claim Osgiliath." Varian turns back and takes his leave from the throne room.

Faramir watches Varian take his leave from the room. He looks back to Denetor, who remains quiet with the cup, filled with wine in front of his mouth and finally drinks it. He says to Faramir "Be gone." And Faramir ends up taking his leave also.

In time, the vast armies of Mordor begins there long march over the lands of Pelennor and move straight towards Minas Tirith. They come in so much numbers, a large force of orcs, Uruks, Easterlings, men and trolls. During the march, the trolls hit the drums and the armies of orcs shouts out to make sure that all of Gondor could hear them. The Banshee Queen herself takes the lead by moving through her army on a Dire Caragor, while her drake flies over the sky and her Balrog was somewhere in the middle of the army, just waiting to come storming through the front gate.

General Varian calls forth his troops to prepare for battle, he sends everyone to the walls while ordering the citizens to move up to the second and third level. Gandalf assist and makes his way to the top level where Faramir and Pippin are both dealing with the problems with the Steward who comes out of the throne to meet this great host of Mordor. He was at a shock when seeing this great force right outside of Minas Tirith, which begins to cause problems when he could see that there is no hope for Gondor without Rohan and Théoden.

"Rohan… Has deserted us… Théoden has betrayed me."

"Milord." Faramir approaches his father from behind and grabs his shoulder

Denethor pushes him away and shouts out loud "Abandon your posts! Flee and fend for your lives!"

When Denethor turns around, Gandalf suddenly attacks him with his staff and shocks both him and Faramir who stood back and watch. Gandalf knocks him to the ground and looks back to Faramir. "Prepare for battle." Gandalf says to him.

Gandalf rides back down to the lower levels of Minas Tirith, shouting out to the soldiers he sees "To the wall, all of you!" He rides down to the lower levels with the Gondorian soldiers behind him. When he makes it on the wall, all the troops with longbows stands together by the edge of the wall, looking back at the enemy as they move closer towards them. Gandalf says to the men "Send these foul creatures to the abyss!"

The forces of Gondor strikes back against the great host of Mordor with a barrage of large debris from trebuchets. Both sides would continue to exchange blows against one another with these siege weapons from both catapults and trebuchets. They keep firing large rocks or debris over the walls, with one doing damage to the buildings while the other wipes out a small portion of orcs. Sylvanas watches the debris flying over her head and landing on top of her army, but she looks forward and just ignores the attacks, because it does not make much of a difference.

"Continue the attack." Sylvanas said

The siege weapons continues firing rocks over the walls while the trebuchets continues firing larger ones back at them. They did deliver some progress against the army like taking out almost three siege towers, two catapults and over hundreds of orcs in the process, but the more the two keep fighting like this, the more the orcs get closer to the walls with the towers. The archers went into positions to target the orcs that comes to the gate and to the trolls that pushes the towers, but the men are too late to bring down the trolls and orcs began attacking the men on the walls. Gandalf continues to assist as much as he can on fighting the orcs with just a sword and his staff, but while the orcs continues the attack, the only thing that was getting his attention was the Balrog.

General Varian was station at the front gates of Minas Tirith, standing alongside Faramir who was shooting an arrow after arrow down at the orcs that try to break the gate down. They could not breach the main gate, but the Balrog was getting closer and Varian decides to get off the wall to defend the front gate while Faramir continues shooting arrows at the invulnerable Balrog. He and his men are no match against it, but only Gandalf could defeat this Balrog and save Gondor before the Balrog enters the city.

Varian calls forth a large company of troops to defend the gates of Minas Tirith and prepare to face whatever comes through that gate. Gandalf arrives to join the fight and to face the Balrog of Tar-Goroth. He sent his horse away so he could face the Balrog on the ground, he held onto his staff and sword then waits until Tar-Goroth breaks through the gate.

"Mithrandir!" Varian calls out to Gandalf when he approaches Varian at the front of the company.

"Show your courage, Varian." Gandalf says to Varian while standing beside him and looking at the gate as he could see the damage already being done by the Balrog. He could see the flames blasting out from the other side as the Balrog continues punching the gate, but would soon smash it right open when it calls forth its flaming sword.

The Balrog of Tar-Goroth broke through the front gate and sent forth the Forsaken straight inside the city. The Balrog comes through first while the orcs remains behind it, giving it space to face off against Gandalf and the defenders of Gondor.

Gandalf takes a few steps towards the Balrog, soon to raise his staff in the air and unleash a large dome of light that surrounds him and the defenders of Gondor. The Balrog attacks with its flaming whip, but his fire could not break the shield that Gandalf has made for him. The Balrog switches to a flaming sword, attacking again at this dome of light, but fails yet again as Gandalf stands firm, since he much stronger than the last time he fought a Balrog.

"Return from whence you came… Servant of Morgoth!" Gandalf raise his voice to the Balrog, which causes it to go into a rage when lighting its whole body in blue flames. Gandalf lowers the dome of light and attacks the Balrog with an attack from his staff. He calls forth the powers of lightning from above the dark skies in Minas Tirith, he brings it down to the top of his staff and unleashes this massive power against the Balrog once fully charge. His staff lights up the whole area that surrounds him in light, which blinds the Balrog and the orcs that stands behind it. When Gandalf was ready, he aims the top of his staff forward, unleashes a much greater lightning blast than the one he use to bring down Durin's Bane.

The Balrog of Tar-Goroth took the direct hit at close range with the power of lightning from Gandalf. The lightning punches through and electrifies the whole body of the Balrog, it cries out in pain with this bright power of light that is flowing through its body. The Balrog is slain, thanks to Gandalf, but the fighting for Minas Tirith continues as the Banshee Queen orders her troops to continue the attack, despite the loss of her favourite general.


End file.
